This award honors the achievements of a trailblazing female recording artist over the past 12 months, and acknowledges her overall success in the music business and her leadership in embracing the changing industry.
Since the release of her first mainstream album, "One of the Boys," in 2008, Perry has continued to top the Billboard charts, setting a number of records along the way.
The 27-year-old singer is the only woman to score five Hot 100 No 1's from one album ("Teenage Dream") in the chart's 54-year history. The album spent more than 100 weeks on the Billboard 200 and has sold 2.5 million copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Perry has also sold 48 million tracks in the US, with four of them - 'Firework', 'California Gurls', 'ET' and 'Hot N Cold' - among the top 30 selling downloads of all time, and holds the record for the most consecutive weeks (69) with at least one title in the Hot 100's top 10.
