Kesha, formerly known as Ke$ha, is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her synth-hip-hop-EDM-pop fusion style of music. She has been fortunate enough to be in the music business her entire life, though the first time many people remember hearing her unique sound was on her own track song Tik Tok. The purpose of this overview is to examine Kesha’s career in detail to better understand what goes into breaking an artist. Since there are no recent books on this topic my main research tool has been the internet. That being said, a lot of the details of Kesha’s career, especially the parts regarding contracts are not public knowledge.
Musical Upbringing
Kesha Rose Sebert, was born in Los Angeles and was exposed to music very early on via her singer-songwriter mother, Pebe Sebert. Pebe’s most notable venture in the music industry is the song Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You, which she wrote in 1978, and was made famous by country star Dolly Parton. Kesha and her family moved to Nashville at the age of four when her mother landed a songwriting contract.
At this point, Pebe started bringing Kesha to the recording studio, which undoubtedly encouraged her passion for music. During high school Kesha didn’t fit in, and eventually dropped out at 17 to pursue a career in music; though, not before attaining a near-perfect score on the SATs, and turning down a scholarship to Barnard College. After dropping out of high school, Kesha moved back to LA to work with producer Luke Gottwald better known as Dr. Luke. Kesha later stated that Dr. Luke persuaded her to drop out of school. Dr. Luke had heard of Kesha through her demo being passed around at BMI, which was due to a business relationship her mother had developed with Samantha Cox, senior director of writer/publisher relations at BMI.
The Signing
In 2005, when Kesha was 18 she was signed to Kemosabe Records, which at the time was run by Dr. Luke. Kemosabe Records is based in Los Angeles and owned by Sony Music Entertainment. The only details of the contract that are public knowledge are that Kesha signed a six-album deal with Dr. Luke, along with his recording and publishing companies — Prescription Songs and Kasz Money Publishing/Where Da Kasz At? Music.
At the time Dr. Luke was busy with other artists, with this in mind Kesha signed with the management company DAS Communications Inc. in 2006. DAS was tasked with finding Kesha a contract with a major label within a year for 20% of income from her music. In 2008 Kesha terminated her contract with DAS, which later caused a legal dispute between Kesha and the management company. Kesha’s current manager is Jack Rovner, co-founder of Vector Management, and details of their contract are not available to the public either.
Label and Management
At Kemosabe Records, Kesha is only joined by a few known names, such as Juicy J and Becky G. Although both of these artists do make catchy songs likely to be heard in a club, Kesha fits in better with the roster of artists at RCA. Similar caliber and genre alike artists at RCA include Britney Spears, Imogen Heap, and Kygo among many others. Vector Management also has a large roster of clients, in particular, Bon Jovi was managed by Jack Rovner for five years before parting ways on good terms.
Success
In 2009 Kesha sang background vocals on the song Right Round by Flo Rida and produced by Dr. Luke, which became her first major hit. Although the song was a ‘smash single’, Kesha was uncredited on the track and was not paid for it. Kesha spoke about the subject in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2011, “Honestly, I walked into the studio and there was Flo Rida and Dr. Luke doing the song, and I was like, ‘I’ll just sing on it. I’m just happy you like my voice enough to put me on your song.’ I believe in karma, so if I’m not a douchebag about that, it’ll just come back to me. So it’s like, ‘You know what, if you don’t want to pay me, it’s fine. I’m excited to have my voice on the radio.”
Prior to the release of Right Round, Kesha with the help of Dr. Luke signed with RCA Records and spent the majority of 2009 recording her first album, Animal. Tik Tok the lead single from the album was released mid-2009 and came out as number one on the global top 10 singles chart in 2010, and achieved 5x platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Animal was released on January 5, 2010, and became number one on the Billboard 200 charts in its debut week. At the time Kesha set the record for the best ever digital album sales for a new artist, along with the biggest first week for a debut album that was released in January. By the end of 2010, Kesha was the second top-selling digital artist and held the third spot for the top-selling digital album that year (The Nielson Company).
Marketing and Promotion
When the song Tik Tok was rising success, RCA wanted to make sure that Kesha sold a lot of albums, not just singles when it came to the release of Animal. Her label decided to price the album at $6.99 on iTunes, and opened the pre-orders in mid-December. To further promote the upcoming album Kesha did performances on multiple talk shows, including MTV Push, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Conan O’Brien, and many others. Similar promotion methods were used for Kesha’s next two albums, Cannibal and Warrior.
The marketing for Kesha’s comeback album, Rainbow, was extremely different than the methods used for her previous albums. For Rainbow, Kesha’s first album after four years of being quiet, she simply announced to the world via her Instagram account that she would be releasing a new song the following day. On July 6, 2017, Kesha released the song Praying along with a personal essay published to a mainstream feminist blog. For the next three weeks she used the essay method to release three more singles, and on August 11, 2017 the entire album. Kesha’s essays were featured in Lenny Letter, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Refinery 29, and Huffington Post; and each of them included a YouTube video with a link to pre-order the new album.
Touring and Live Performances
Kesha has had the opportunity to tour with numerous other artists, whether they were her opening act or her co-headliner. A few of the other artists include 3OH!3, Pitbull, LMFAO, Beardo, Natalia Kills, and The Creepies. In 2013, Kesha and Pitbull joined up for a tour to promote both of their recent album releases, Warrior and Global Warming. The tour traveled across North America with 22 dates and garnered over half a million in gross revenue. More recently Kesha embarked on the North American Rainbow Tour with no headliner or supporting acts. To further promote the tour, Kesha fans were given a free copy of the new album, Rainbow, when they bought tickets for any date on the tour.
TV and Film Appearances
During the course of Kesha’s 2011 Get Sleazy Tour, a six-month tour across the Americas, Australia, and Europe, the documentary My Crazy Beautiful Life was filmed. The documentary was shot by her brother Lagan Sebert, and also includes the recording of the album Warrior. The film was split into 14 episodes (two seasons) and was featured on MTV in 2013. The show promised to give fans an inside look at her business and personal life.
Kesha is very much known for her stage presence and glitter-filled celebration-type music videos. In addition, she is no stranger to having her music featured in major movies like Pitch Perfect 2 and Neighbours, to name a few. Along with the previously mentioned credits, she has also made multiple appearances on TV and in movies. Appearances include TV shows Nashville and Jane the Virgin, and movies Jem and the Holograms and A Ghost Story. Originally Kesha was only supposed to contribute a song to the film A Ghost Story, though director David Lowery is a huge fan of hers; so Tony Halbrook, producer and songwriter for the film, suggested that she do a cameo, at that point Lowery wrote her a part in the production.
Brand Collaborations, Endorsements, Merchandise, etc.
Kesha Rose by Charles Albert is a jewelry line launched in 2012. The jewelry line is defined by the Charles Albert online shop as, “The Charles Albert brand’s high-quality and contemporary aesthetic, with the singer’s distinctive personality,” additionally the line was only available until 2015. In September of 2011, Kesha collaborated with Casio to launch two watches that she designed for their popular Baby G line, and in 2012 a limited edition watch. For the Get Sleazy Tour in 2011, Kesha teamed up with the Lifestyles condom company and had 10,000 special edition condoms created that she shot out of a cannon at the audience.
In 2012 Kesha obtained an endorsement with the communications company Nokia. In the music video for the song Die Young, Kesha is seen holding a bright yellow Nokia Lumia 920. The phone had been released around the same time as the song, and Nokia was looking for a way to generate publicity for the new device. That being said, the phone was quickly replaced by a pack of cards in the music video, as the song had received a lot of backlash after a tragic elementary school shooting occurred within the same timeframe of the video’s release.
Kesha has also gotten involved with numerous campaigns throughout her career, most notably she was the face for a PETA and Humane Society campaign, an anti-bullying initiative, and hairstyling sweepstakes. As a result of her obvious love for animals the Humane Society named Kesha the first-ever Humane Society International Global Ambassador. Regarding merchandise, Kesha had a brief deal with Hot Topic to carry T-shirts bearing the Kesha logo.
Demographics
Since Kesha appeals to such a broad demographic, she has been an ideal candidate to be the face of many campaigns, brands, etc. In her early days, her main demographic mainly consisted of the LGTBQ community and females, likely high school age to college age, with minimal income. As an artist, she has grown and evolved in front of her fans, which has allowed her fan base to grow too. Kesha’s current main demographic still consists of the LGBTQ community and females, though the age group also now includes young adults (30+) with larger incomes. Kesha’s target audience covers fans of similar music, such as EDM, pop, and hip-hop.
Songwriting
Kesha got her start in the music industry by utilizing the craft of songwriting, and even considers herself a songwriter before anything else. She has a full or co-writing credit on every track on all of her albums, as well she has written a number of songs for other artists. When it comes to the tracks on Kesha’s albums the most common co-write is her mother, Pebe. Excluding her own tracks, Kesha has credits on songs for The Veronicas, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Alice Cooper, Ariana Grande, and many more.
International Fame
Without a doubt, the song that broke Kesha internationally was Tik Tok. The song was the first Hot 100 #1 of the 2010s decade, and in its second week at number one, it set the record for most single week downloads for a female artist. The song managed to stay at the number one spot for nine weeks, which made Tik Tok, the top song on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for 2010; along with making Kesha the first female to obtain the top song of the year since Billboard began doing end of the year charts.
The Dr. Luke Debacle and Other Legalities
In 2010 DAS sued Kesha for $14 million in unpaid commissions for work the company claimed to have gotten Kesha after she terminated their agreement. The management company also sued Dr. Luke for $12 million, claiming he interfered and convinced Kesha to breach her contract. The lawsuit was eventually settled in 2011 with Kesha being ordered to pay DAS half the amount they demanded.
Although a lot of the specifics are still not known to the public in 2014 Kesha filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke for sexual assault claiming he abused her for years, including a time he forced her to take a date-rape drug. Kesha’s lawsuit also revealed that Dr. Luke caused her psychological pain, which led her to rehab in early-2014 to treat an eating disorder. A remedy to her situation was that she asked to be released from the contract she had with the producer, as she felt his actions were a breach of contract. The same day Kesha filed her lawsuit, Dr. Luke filed his own against Kesha, her mother, and her manager Jack Rovner claiming defamation of his name. He also denied all of Kesha’s accusations. In 2015 Kesha included Sony in her initial lawsuit against Dr. Luke, the reason being that she believes the major label knew about the abuse for years and allowed it to go on.
The original lawsuit from Kesha was filed in California and had to be put on hold mid-2015, as the court discovered a provision in her contract with Kemosabe that any legal disputes regarding said contract had to be dealt with in New York. At this point Kesha felt that she could not record any new music without Dr. Luke’s involvement, so she filed a preliminary injunction through the New York court. Around this time Sony spoke out against the lawsuit stating that it had been, “Caught in the crossfire,” and that they just want it to be dismissed. The defamation lawsuit against Kesha’s mom and the manager was discharged in early 2016, as the New York court where Dr. Luke filed the claim stated that it has no jurisdiction over either party. However, Kesha lost a small battle in her preliminary injunction with the court asserting that Dr. Luke is allowing her to make new music without him being directly involved. Kesha’s legal team argued that though she could physically create new music that Sony would not promote it as they should. In February of 2016, Sony spoke out again to say that they are not in a place to terminate Kesha’s contract, as it was not an agreement between them.
The legal dispute got more heated in mid-2016 when Kesha revealed on Instagram that she was offered a deal to take back all her accusations and Dr. Luke would release her from the contract. In the same post, Kesha stated, “I will not take back the TRUTH. I would rather let the truth ruin my career than lie for a monster ever again.” On August 1, 2017, Kesha dropped her lawsuit in California, meanwhile, she continued to pursue appeals in New York. In March of the same year a judge denies Kesha’s lawsuit for a third time with the reasoning that her claim of breach of contract by abuse is not a reason for a dismissal of contract.
#FreeKesha
Due to Kesha’s legal battle with Dr. Luke and her fans’ immense love for her the #FreeKesha movement was started. On social media, the hashtag #FreeKesha started trending in 2016, though this only caused legal issues for the creator of the campaign, Michael Eisele. On March 10, 2017, Eisele was subpoenaed by Dr. Luke’s lawyers. The claim this time was that Eisele and Kesha worked together to spread defamatory comments about Dr. Luke in an attempt to ruin his reputation.
Conclusion
Kesha has led a captivating career over the last decade, with opportunities to write songs for some of the biggest musicians in the world, to becoming one herself. She has headlined multiple tours, set records, and sold millions of albums. What truly broke her as an artist to the world is her personality, unique writing style, and ability to be real with her fans. Even with a very public ongoing legal battle with the man that started her on the path to success, she still managed to come back and gain even more support to continue making music.
