Development and release

Perry dancing with others at the Buda Castle with fireworks bursting from them

The video is part of a cross-promotional deal with European telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom hosted a series of activities and competitions from which fans around Europe would be recruited to be in the video. MTV reported that Perry started filming the video on September 28, 2010. The video was choreographed by Natricia Bernard, and shot in Budapest. The official teaser trailer of the music video was released on October 15, 2010. An open casting call for the music video drew an unprecedented 38,000 applicants. Perry dedicated it to the It Gets Better Project. The video was released on TwitVid, DirectLyrics, and Youku on October 28, 2010. It premiered on October 28, 2010, on YouTube, and as of November 2019, has amassed more than 1.2 billion views. It was presented in the anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

Synopsis

Perry opens the video gazing down upon the city from a balcony. As she sings into the night, fireworks burst from her soul1 and soon inspire young people throughout the city to overcome their fears and insecurities, in the process igniting their own fireworks. A boy confronts his parents, who are in a heated argument and upsetting his little sister, and pushes them apart. A shy overweight girl, playing the role of wallflower at a pool party, finds the courage to shed her clothes and jump in the pool with her friends. A leukemia patient at a children's hospital proves to herself that she can show herself out on the street and in public despite her loss of hair. A closeted teenage boy approaches his male friend in a club and kisses him. A struggling young performer walking home in a dark alley uses tricks from his magic act to win over a group of street toughs who were trying to rob him. Soon the youth of the city are converging upon the courtyard of Buda Castle, dancing and lighting up the night with their fireworks, as the camera pans up to the sky for their popping sounds, ending the video.

Reception

On MuchMusic's top 50 videos of 2010, "Firework" was ranked No. 1. The video won Video of the Year at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards and was nominated for Best Female Video and the newly introduced Best Video with a Message category. (with text from Wikipedia)