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Katy Perry is being investigated by the Spanish government for allegedly filming the music video for her new single “Lifetimes” on some ecologically sensitive and protected sand dunes without permission.
The sand dunes are located in Ses Salines de Eivissa and Formentera Natural Park on the uninhabited islet of S’Espalmador in Spain’s Balearic islands.
The Balearic regional government states on its tourism website that the dunes have “great ecological value.”
On Tuesday, the Balearic Islands Department of Agriculture, Fishery and Natural Environment stated in a press release that the production company responsible for Katy Perry’s music video, WeOwnTheCity, did not seek nor did they receive permission from the Ministry of Agriculture to film on the dunes.
The department’s statement also expressed that “preliminary investigation actions have been initiated” to determine whether any “crime against the environment” occurred.
In the music video for “Lifetimes,” Katy Perry, 39, can be seen dancing and sitting on sand dunes inside a roped-off area that El Pais reported indicates that “passage is prohibited.”
One would therefore also have to assume that Perry’s a camera crew, production team and all of the recording equipment would also have been present on one of the most ecologically prosperous enclaves in the Balearic Islands during the video shoot.
People can receive permission to use the dunes for “the purpose of advertising or commercial exhibition” so Katy Perry using them for her video won’t constitute a crime, but causing environmental damage to the area without receiving permission to film there could be cause for some penalty.
Katy Perry revealed in a recent interview with The Sun that the song “Lifetimes” is inspired by her three-year-old daughter Daisy.
“It is funny how sometimes you’re looking for your soulmate in a partner. It could be a dog, your mom, your best friend, your cat … but for me it came in the form of Daisy,” she said.
“I wrote ‘Lifetimes’ about her. Every night, before we go to sleep, I say, ‘I love you’, and then I ask, ‘Will you find me in every lifetime?’ and she says, ‘Yes.'”