Happy Friday! Happy new Katy Perry video! Perry released the official video for Dark Horse yesterday, February 20th. The video once again showcases Perry’s penchant for kitschy cultural references – in the best way. It starts off by setting the scene “Memphis, Egypt, a crazy long time ago…”

Katy Perry
Perry's PRISM is her most successful album to date.

Ignoring the fact that the lyrics reference Aphrodite, who is actually an Ancient Greek deity, the video launches into a montage of what pop culture considers to be Ancient Egyptian references – there are barges, animal-headed gods, the Eye of Horus and sundry Egypt-related, jewel-toned imagery. There’s also Perry, dressed as some sort of sci-fi power-wielding, grill-sporting Cleopatra. In other words, it’s as Katy Perry as a video can be. It’s hard to tear your eyes away. Additional details that work in favor of Dark Horse – the whole lightning power thing ties in nicely with lyrics like “So you wanna play with magic/ Boy, you should know what you’re falling for.” Also, Perry’s various outfits and makeup looks throughout are a thing of beauty. Youtube makeup gurus are going to have a field day with this one.

Check out the video below.

The video is so overwhelming that by the time Juicy J joins in, you won’t even mind that his verse features the lyrics “She’s a beast, I call her karma/She eats your heart like Jeffrey Dahmer.” Err… that got just a bit too literal for a moment. Dark Horse is the third single off Perry’s Prism, which debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 in October. The Matthew Cullen-directed video already has close to 2.5 million views on youtube. It also offers fans the chance to “play with magic” and insert clips of themselves into the Dark Horse video, using a downloadable app.