After years spent fighting an extremely complicated legal battle with her former producer Dr Luke, Kesha has released, ‘Praying’, her first single since 2013 and it’s so many levels of brilliant, emotional, difficult, and cathartic all at the same time.
In a case that you’re probably already pretty familiar with, the wonderful Kesha pressed charges against Dr Luke for sexual and emotional abuse, which he denied. For a long time the legal limbo that proceeded meant that it was beyond difficult for the singer to release any new solo material – she had finished her new single a year ago but wasn’t sure if she’d be able to release it legally, reports the BBC. But now, almost four years since her last release we have ‘Praying’, a song that Kesha says ‘is about coming to feel empathy for someone else even if they hurt you or scare you’.
In a personal essay for Lenny Letter, Kesha explained: ‘It's a song about learning to be proud of the person you are even during low moments when you feel alone. It's also about hoping everyone, even someone who hurt you, can heal.’
So, if you were wondering how much Kesha’s music would reference what she’s been through as a result of the alleged abuse from her ex-producer, it’s pretty explicitly present in the song. But in a really honest way that’ll probably resonate with you pretty hard. With lyrics likes ‘you almost had me fooled, told me that I was nothing without you’, and ‘you brought the flames and you put me through hell’, the extent to which Kesha used the song as a cathartic, soul-baring process of dealing with what has happened and moving on. Which is something she echoed in her essay...
‘"Praying" was written about that moment when the sun starts peeking through the darkest storm clouds, creating the most beautiful rainbow’, she wrote. And ‘Rainbow’ just so happens to be the name of the new album you should be getting excited about, btw. Kesha added: ‘I have realized through this long journey of ups and downs that if I'm lucky enough to have a voice that people listen to, then I should use it for good and for truth. I've battled intense anxiety and depression, a relentless eating disorder, and all the other basic bullshit that comes with being human. I know I'm not alone in that battle. Finding the strength to come forward about these things is not easy, but I want to help others who are going through tough times'.
The strength it’s taken to speak up in the first place, persist through what we can only imagine to have been with most awful of processes and then come out the other end with a song as powerful as this one, definitely won't have gone unnoticed. The music video reached more than four and a half million views on YouTube within the first 24 hours of its release. It was in the top three of the US iTune charts by the time many of us had even woken up to listen to it and obviously, the social media support has been insane.
With the new album on the horizon, due to drop on 11 August and what's so quickly proven to be a huge success for Kesha both personally and musically (erm, did you hear those vocals? Didn't hear that in Timber, did we?), to use her own words: ‘This is just the beginning’.
**Like this? You might also be interested in… **
Female Celebrities Came Out In Support Of Kesha As Her Legal Battle Continued
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.