Katy Perry defends controversial scene in her latest music video

Katy Perry has defended her controversial scene in recently released 'Woman's World' music video.

The 39-year-old singer released a new track earlier this week, but has faced criticism for the explicit nature of the video.

It is notably a moment where the singer and her dancers perform tempting choreography on a construction site before she is "smashed" by an anvil and returns in a new costume.

Now in a behind-the-scenes video shared to Instagram, Perry said of the moment: "We’re kind of just having fun, being a bit sarcastic with it. It’s very slapstick and very on the nose."

'With this set it’s like,'Oooh, we’re not about the male gaze, but we really are about the male gaze.' And we’re really overplaying it and on the nose." 

The former American Idol judge explained the anvil moment was meant as a "reset" to help her embrace the "idea of feminine divine".

She added: "We wanted to open this video making it look like a super high-gloss pop star video." 

Woman's World is the first single from Perry's upcoming album 143, which will be released on 20 September.

The title is a code for I love you which was often used in messages sent on pagers during the 1990s.