Katy Perry's songs were deployed to disperse protesters at a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders on Thursday in the Philippines.

Thousands of activists were present outside the meeting between the leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) nations, which included President Barack Obama, according to the Daily Mail. The situation started to escalate when left-wing protesters began to become violent and attempted to bust through police lines.

Police wielding wooden batons did their best to prevent the unruly activists from moving closer to the APEC summit venue in Manila. The protesters were chanting phrases like "Junk APEC" and "No to Imperialism." After using conventional methods, such as water cannons and shields, to break up the riot, police resorted to blasting Perry's music at high volume to control the crowd.

Perry's song "Roar" was blasted out of loud speakers to distract protesters and drown out their chants.

Some of the other songs chosen to distract the activists were Dolly Parton's "Islands in the Stream," David Guetta's "Sexy B*tch" featuring Akon, The Temptations' "My Girl," and the Bee Gee's "How Deep Is Your Love." Several of the policemen were tapping their batons against their riot shields on beat with the music as well.

"We just want to make our voices heard," 64-year-old mango farmer Candelario Rusasena said to reporters.

Metro Manila police spokeswoman chief inspector Kimberly Gonzales explained the music was not meant to diminish the protesters' rally, but to de-escalate any hostility that could have occurred.

"Filipinos in general love music and it has a calming effect for everyone. This goes well with our maximum tolerance policy during protests," Gonzales said. "We understand the seriousness of the issues. We don't mean to insult people."

Protesters said some of the main reasons for their opposition to APEC's free-trade agenda included the forum's support for big corporations and neglect of the poor.

The protests erupted as Philippine President Benigno Aquino was welcoming Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders at the summit's second and last day.

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