Katy Perry headed back to her hometown of Santa Barbara, California, on Tuesday, where she hit the stage for a raucous performance at her old high school, Dos Pueblos. Rocking out to her hits like "Waking Up in Vegas" and "Hot N Cold," she performed for the winners of the nationwide Go Back to High School With "You Again" and Katy Perry's Teenage Dream radio contest. The crowd was rounded out by about 1,000 of Dos Pueblos' finest students.

For Perry, getting the chance to play for a hometown crowd was a special experience.

"This is one of my favorite shows! Definitely top 10, maybe top five," the [article id="1647870"]VMA-nominated singer[/article] explained. "I was giving it my all, even though I had, like, a cough and I'm still struggling to get healthy, I was so happy to be here in Santa Barbara."

Perry told MTV News last month that she [article id="1646038"]wrote her latest hit, "Teenage Dream,"[/article] in the town she grew up in and still holds the SoCal city close to her heart.

"I was so happy to be here in Santa Barbara because Santa Barbara is really my heart and, you know, if [a radio contest concert] would have went down when I was in high school here, I would have freaked," she said. "I would have totally camped out in those little seats [for] Gwen Stefani, No Doubt. Most definitely they were like my favorite, still are."

So what was Perry like back in the day?

"I was kind of a class clown, but I wasn't as funny as a class clown. I was learning from them and I was also kind of a show-off, still kind of a show-off," said Perry, who left school early and got her GED to pursue her music career. "I went to homecoming with a senior and that made me feel really cool 'cause when you catch a senior for homecoming or for prom or whatever it is ... you made it. So I made it back then, even."