WASHINGTON: In what might be the ultimate seal of approval, Barack Obama hailed Katy Perry as a “wonderful person”, reported Daily Mail.

The US President hosted the “Dark Horse” hit-maker at a White House dinner to honor the 46th anniversary of the Special Olympics and admitted he felt “grateful” she’d taken time out of her busy schedule to be there.

Introducing her on stage, Obama said: “We have just one of my favorite people performing tonight — Katy Perry. We are so grateful to her.

“Katy is just a wonderful person,” he added.

“I’ve just met her mom and now I know why she is such a wonderful person, but I just want everybody to know she is on tour right now and so, for her to take time out to do this, is really special and we really want to say thank you to her for doing this.”

Among those in attendance at the dinner in the East Room of the White House were lately hitmaker Stevie Wonder, tennis player Andy Roddick and his model wife Brooklyn Decker.

Taking her mother, Mary Hudson, to the event was a big turnaround for Katy — who has performed twice before for the President — as she previously claimed she had banned her pastor parents from watching her sing at the Commander-in-Chief’s second inauguration in 2012 because they didn’t vote for him.

She said in the past: “My parents are Republicans and I’m not. They didn’t vote for Obama, but when I was asked to sing at the inauguration, they were like, ‘We can come.’ And I was like, ‘No, you can’t. I love you so much, but that--on principle.”

“They understood, but I was like, ‘How dare you?’ in a way.”

Clearly delighted with her chance to perform for Obama, the I Kissed A Girl singer took to Twitter to say: “What an incredibly beautiful evening being invited to sing at the White House.”

She then posted a second message, with a link to her new video for This Is How We Do, adding: “Between singing at the White House & releasing one of my favorite videos, today was a good one.”

This Is How We Do is a single from her fourth studio album Prism and is the fifth song to be released from the LP.