Kesha For Elle: Music Industry Should Be Fcking Terrified Of Me!

[RAMROD 104,115]

 

Before Kesha got The Call, she was frolicking naked with her friends off the coast of Zihuatanejo, Mexico—a sun-kissed Lady Godiva on a jet ski, cutting through the ocean waves. Her entourage of 12 friends followed her lead, shedding their beachwear to evade tan lines as they scanned the water for sharks and manta rays.

It was the pop star’s 37th birthday and the dawning of her most liberated year yet. “I got a big wake-up call to start living like a free woman,” she says of the divine intervention. “But I also got a literal phone call.” That one had happened three months earlier, when her lawyers phoned to say that it was official: On March 6, her birthday, for the first time in 19 years, Kesha would reclaim the legal rights to her own voice.

Kesha was just 18 years old in 2005 when she first signed an ill-fated six-album deal with songwriter and music producer Lukasz Gottwald, better known as Dr. Luke. Nine years later, Kesha dropped a bombshell when she filed a civil suit against Dr. Luke for infliction of emotional distress, sexual harassment, and assault.

After nearly a decade spent sparring in courtrooms through a procession of lawyers, in June 2023, Kesha and Dr. Luke reached a settlement that would dismiss Dr. Luke’s defamation claim against Kesha, which by that point was all that remained of their lawsuits against each other. (When announcing the settlement, both parties continued to deny any misconduct.) Since then, Kesha has gained full autonomy over her future music and recordings, allowing her to work freely with any producers of her choosing. 

In the months since, she’s founded her own label called Kesha Records, and released a new hit single, “Joyride.” She’s now hard at work on a new album, becoming the godmother of the next generation of pop stars, and has a 10-year plan to upend the industry. “The music industry should be ****ing terrified of me,” Kesha says. “Because I’m about to make some major moves and shift this ****. I really want to dismantle it piece by piece and shine light into every corner. I hope my legacy is making sure it never happens to anybody ever again.”

On a sweltering August afternoon in Los Angeles, Kesha sits across from me on a leather couch inside the Village studios in West Hollywood, where Fleetwood Mac, Heart, and Whitney Houston once recorded legendary records. She wears a T-shirt promoting her new record label—“KESHA RECORDS, BITCH,” it reads in huge yellow letters—and a pair of seersucker overalls, bedecked with several smiley face buttons for flair. It’s here that Kesha’s been fine-tuning songs for her very first album as an independent artist. “I’m free and it feels good,” she says. “I have a reminder in my phone that says: ‘You’re free.’”

Under the direction of trailblazing hyper-pop producers A. G. Cook (Charli xcx) and Zhone (Slayyyter), Kesha’s stadium-size dance-pop bombast is delicately imbued with the barbed metallic accents popularized by Cook’s label-slash-milieu, PC Music. Although she hasn’t named her record yet, three words cycle periodically like mantras throughout our interview: freedom, safety, and most importantly, joy.

“This record is my little wild child,” Kesha says with an impish grin. “My last record that came out, Gag Order, was me giving the more painful emotions a voice. I was really vulnerable. Now I’m really trying to make way for the bad bitch. I’m giving her the moment—because we need the space to have all the emotions safely. I capture the empowered emotions, so that I can listen back to it when I’m not feeling that way.”

Propelled by a taunting loop of polka-style horn samples, “Joyride” is a campy libertine dream transmuted into song. Lyrics like “Rev my engine till you make it purr” call back to the Kesha we met in 2009: a glitter-streaked weekend warrior with a party-girl ethos that verged on a death drive. “You know the Buddhist saying that life is pain? I found that to be very true in my life,” she continues, sipping on a paper cup of green tea. “Everybody knows me as a fun human being. My soul is very fun. My name means ‘innocent joy.’ But, you know, there’s only so much somebody can take before just feeling wrecked....My soul needs this album. I need to reclaim my joy. Because I fought so ****ing long and hard for it.”

 

To Kesha, there is not only life after surviving a very public trauma, there is room for dessert. “I really think that my joy is such a feminist act of defiance,” she says. “And to everyone who has supported me, and to anyone who’s a survivor out there, know that the energy of support toward me also flows through me to them.” Released pointedly on Independence Day of this year, “Joyride” is a grown and sexy work of opera-pop that’s been brewing in Kesha’s brain since that divine call made its way to her in Mexico. “The second it came out of my mouth, I was like, ‘This is my first single.’ It was me busting the door back down and saying, ‘No, no, it’s time to party again!’ We’re going to start with having fun, and then I’m going to try to dismantle all the shady ****.”

The song was written not only after her legal dispute had been settled, but also in the aftermath of her last relationship, which yielded fewer rewards for her than being alone. “I had a feeling that he was in it for the wrong reasons and was a bit of a star****er,” Kesha says of her ex. “I decided to test that theory and took one of my friends instead of him to Taylor Swift’s party. He came over the next day and broke up with me.”

https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a62470735/kesha-new-album-interview-2024/

[Aglaya 8,024]

That picture gave me major Tudor vibes  anyone else?

[ALGAYDO 29,931]

30 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

The song was written not only after her legal dispute had been settled, but also in the aftermath of her last relationship, which yielded fewer rewards for her than being alone. “I had a feeling that he was in it for the wrong reasons and was a bit of a star****er,” Kesha says of her ex. “I decided to test that theory and took one of my friends instead of him to Taylor Swift’s party. He came over the next day and broke up with me.”

Girl WHAT, I- 

[27monster27 11,105]

Shift that dynamic Kesha! I am so proud of her for (just like queen Robyn) fighting against the industries demands and going solo. What an icon.

[HelloHangoverz 15,542]

Edited October 5 by HelloHangoverz

[datlastfam 4,687]

yasss album of millenium tease 

 

[SimonBaetens 6,744]

I’m ready

[Kelly Atlantic 169]

33 minutes ago, SimonBaetens said:

I’m ready

For my interview 

[AMRer 2,748]

Loving this confidence. Never was a big fan but always had the impresion her potential was huge

[Economy 47,005]

The context of the writing sounds more like about pressuring the industry in its culture and situations that involve sexual abuse than it does to a commercial come back

 

Anyway love Kesha, a lot! And I love her intentions here and I am so sorry for what she went thru

 

Unfortunately i am also a realist. It is going to happen again because "making sure it never happens to anyone again" is a frequent saying used broadly for many issues we never manage to actually fix

 

 

[Addison Rae 15,123]

she’s talking about setting a precedent against predatory practises that are rampant in the music industry. love her so much and you can tell how much she cares about other artists not going through the HELL she went through for over a decade. 

[Shakmasda 142]

Good for her!

[Red 94,464]

YASSS QUEEEEEEENNNN RUN ME OVERRRRRRR