Kesha, the pop star formerly known as Ke$ha, produced hits that infected our middle school ears such as ‘Tik Tok’ and ‘We R Who We R’. She quickly became known as the party girl – hell she even had a dollar sign in her name. Often donning glittery and sparkly outfits on stage, the Tennessee native, born Kesha Rose Sebert, made music that made you dance and feel good, whether you liked it or not. She also penned mega-hits: ‘Till the World Ends’ performed by Britney Spears, ‘Time of Our Lives’ performed by Miley Cyrus and ‘Windows Down’ performed by Big Time Rush. Her last full-length release, Rainbow from August of this year, was years in the making due to an ongoing legal battle.
In October of 2014, Kesha filed a lawsuit against producer Dr. Luke, born Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald, alleging that he r**ed her. The lawsuit outlines that he drugged, r**ed, controlled and psychologically abused her from 2005 to 2010, and beyond. She is currently signed to a six-album contract with the producer inside of her record deal with RCA and Kemosabe Records (Dr. Luke’s label), both branches of Sony Music.
In response, Dr. Luke filed a lawsuit the following day against Kesha and her mother Pebe (full-name Rosemary Patricia), claiming defamation and breach of contract, according to The New York Times. His lawsuit alleges the two used “false and shocking accusations” to get Kesha out of her contract with the producer.
The back and forth within the two lawsuits continued further when a judge in LA, where Kesha filed her initial lawsuit, set the case aside because her deal with RCA stated contractual disputes would be handled in New York, The New York Times says. Kesha then filed a counter suit to Dr. Luke’s claims in New York.
A few weeks after the New York lawsuits, Dr. Luke also filed a similar suit claiming defamation against Pebe; he filed this in Tennessee according to Billboard.
Things really started to get messy when Kesha and her legal team tried to get a preliminary injunction that would let Kesha write and record music outside of her contract with Dr. Luke, said The Hollywood Reporter. They applied for the injunction in September of 2015. Her legal team tried to reason with the judge saying that pop stars’ careers are short anyway and without the injunction she could lose her career.
In an affidavit from Jim Urie, former president and CEO of Universal Music Group Distribution, he said “…if Kesha cannot immediately resume recording and having her music promoted, marketed and distributed by a major label, her career is effectively over.”
New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich told Mark Geragos, Kesha’s lawyer, “You’re asking the court to decimate a contract that was heavily negotiated and typical for the industry.” She denied the injunction on February 19th of 2016.
Within days of this news breaking, tons of industry heavyweights and fans alike made their support known. The social media campaign #FreeKesha was launched. Halsey, Marina Diamandis, Lily Allen, Demi Lovato, Lorde, Lena Dunham, Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson all tweeted out their backing of Kesha.
Lady Gaga, who is outspoken about her history of sexual abuse, has been an adamant supporter of Kesha throughout the entire ordeal, with tweets and Instagram posts of the two with heartfelt captions.
Taylor Swift donated $250,000 to the singer to help cover legal fees. This action almost speaks louder than the others in offering her support in the courts rather than heart to heart.
Maybe most importantly, Jack Antonoff of the band fun. and Bleachers, and producer/ DJ Zedd both offered her studio time and production help in releasing new music.
Casual fans of the singer started to become vocal. Discussions of Kesha stopped being about whether her music was a disgrace to the industry and instead became about whether or not she was lying about being sexaully assaulted.
Many women, especially celebrities accusing other celebrities, are heavily scrutinized when they make sexual assault accusations. The rhetoric usually goes something along the lines of “She’s lying to get money.”
Dr. Luke responded during the height of the campaign on Twitter saying “Imagine if you or somebody you loved was publicly accused of a r**e you knew they didn’t do. It’s sad that [Kesha] would turn a contract negotiation into something so horrendous and untrue. But I feel confident when this is over the lies will be exposed and the truth will prevail.”
Also around this time, Sony offered a statement, according to Rolling Stone. Scott Edelman, a lawyer who represents Sony, said “Sony has made it possible for Kesha to record without any connection, involvement or interaction with Luke whatsoever, but Sony is not in a position to terminate the contractual relationship between Kesha and Luke.” He added that “Sony is doing everything it can to support the artist in these circumstances, but is legally unable to terminate the contract to which it is not a party.”
A little over a month after the denial, the singer’s lawyers filed an appeal against the denied injunction. Her lawyers claimed that Shirley based her decision “on the idea that Kesha would be able to record without Dr. Luke interfering,” according to Rolling Stone. But they point out that by denying her access outside of her contract, she’s forced to work for his companies (Kemosabe Records and Kasz Music Inc.), something that he would earn profit from.
In April of 2016, Kesha took Zedd up on his offer to record new music. She did a surprise performance at his Coachella Weekend 1 set, covering the title track of his most recent album, ‘True Colors.’ After the music festival, the two went back and forth posting pictures of one another in the studio and formally announced a song together to be released on April 29th. The song is a rerecorded version of ‘True Colors.’ It was met with critical acclaim from fans, with some saying it’s an anthem for her freedom.
The chorus of the song says “All my life / one page at a time / I’ll show you my / my true colors / No, no no no / I won’t apologize / for the fire in my eyes / Let me show you my / my true colors / it ain’t no rainbow”
The singer posted a picture of herself in the studio recording the single on Instagram and captioned the picture “It’s a miracle when someone gives you a chance at finding your voice again with no reason other than that he is a fucking beautiful person with a heart of gold @zedd #truecolors”
For the most part, Kesha had been pretty quiet on social media as each lawsuit was viewed and discussed legally. The Coachella performance and formal rerelease of this single fuelled fan support to another level. She was no longer the victim, but now the survivor. She started to use her fans to fight back. The lyrics imply she was ready to lay everything on the table.
The following month, Kesha was allowed to perform at the Billboard Music Awards after Dr. Luke and Kemosabe confirm that she won’t use the platform to discuss or make notice of the ongoing litigation. She sang a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’ with Ben Folds.
On August 1, 2016, Kesha dropped the original LA lawsuit that she filed nearly two years ago. According to Vulture, she gave 28 new songs to her label and wanted to focus on the New York case that would get her out of her contract.
In the first couple months of this year, new evidence came up from Kesha both via text messages and emails, Vulture claims. The texts are an exchange between her and Lady Gaga; Dr. Luke threatened to sue for defamation. And the emails are supposedly from Dr. Luke to Kesha regarding her weight; Dr. Luke claims the emails are taken out of context.
When March rolled around, Kesha faced another legal loss. This time, her amended countersuit against Dr. Luke was rejected by a judge because she didn’t give appropriate notice to end her songwriting contract and she was being too “speculative,” says Vulture. In the suit, Kesha claimed that by staying in the contract with Dr. Luke and Kemosabe, her career would be up in the air, as Dr. Luke’s contract with Sony is coming to an end soon, but that couldn’t be proven.
This summer, Dr. Luke’s defamation suit against Pebe was dropped as she admitted she had “no firsthand personal knowledge of the events” that Kesha claimed happened, according to a joint statement.
Also this summer, Lady Gaga was subpoenaed by Dr. Luke over the text messages she had exchanged with Kesha earlier in the year. She will testify in September.
After the repeated loses in court, Kesha released her first single since the lawsuits began, on July 6, 2017. Called ‘Praying’, it is clearly an anthem about what she went through with Dr. Luke and it precedes her third full-length album, Rainbow.
Some lyrics are “Well you almost had me fooled / Told me that I was / nothing without you / Oh / But after everything you’ve done / I can thank you for / how strong I have become / … / And we both know all the truth I could tell / … / And when I’m finished / they won’t even know your name”
And as powerful as it is, the New York Times reports that Dr. Luke will still greatly profit from any commercial success she sees from this song and album. Kesha is signed to Kemosabe and RCA, deals which were negotiated over a decade ago and are dependent upon Dr. Luke’s Kasz Money Inc.
Legally, Dr. Luke’s lawyers have said nothing was stopping Kesha from releasing new music during this whole debacle. Her contract originally stated that Dr. Luke must produce at least six songs per album but he has forgone that requirement, the New York Times reported.
As for the lawsuits, Dr. Luke’s suit against Kesha is still “in the early phases of fact discovery, expert discovery and depositions” with trial probably happening in 2018, according to the New York Times. Kesha has an appeal for dismissal of her own claims and preliminary injunction so she could release music without Sony and Dr. Luke, but neither are making progress.
With or without Dr. Luke, Kesha is charging forward career-wise. Rainbow debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 116,000 equivalent album units (of that sum, 89,000 were traditional album sales), according to Nielsen Music.
She performed at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas on September 23 of this year, bringing out new collaborator Macklemore. They have a song together (‘Good Old Days’) on his most recent LP, Gemini.
She begins her headlining tour of Rainbow tonight in Birmingham, AL with all but two of the 24 dates being sold-out. She will make stops in her hometown of Nashville, New York City, Toronto, Los Angeles and London. The tour goes through mid-November.
This case has become so much larger than just Kesha and Dr. Luke. Contract disputes based solely around alleged sexual abuse are rare in the music industry, according to Billboard. The outcome of this case could become the precedent for how others are handled. It may encourage or discourage other victims from coming forward with sexual assault stories.
The case could also solidify the amount of power some male producers have to coerce young female artists into doing whatever they ask in order to have any career at all.
By choosing to release music still under contract with her alleged abuser, Kesha has rewritten the rules for what it means to be abused in a male-centric and male-dominated industry. “Good victims” don’t fight back. They let the courts decide their fate. But Kesha is still fighting for her right to be freed from her abuser three albums before the contract is up.
The success of Rainbow and its nearly sold-out tour prove that taking your abuse allegations public doesn’t necessarily hurt your career.