Pop star Katy Perry was forced to battle with record label bosses because they originally wanted her to copy Avril Lavigne.

When the I Kissed A Girl hitmaker was starting out in the industry, every music chief she encountered encouraged her to follow in the footsteps of Lavigne, whose punk pop style was ruling the charts at the time.

But Perry was determined to stick to her own image, even if it meant turning down lucrative offers from several record labels.

She says, "When I first started at 17, the hit song was Complicated (by Avril Lavigne) and everyone wanted me to write a Complicated. I said, 'Look, that's her and this is me. Everybody loves her song and hopefully everyone will like mine.'"