Kesha
Famous BisKesha Rose Sebert, known simply as Kesha (formerly Ke$ha) is an American singer and songwriter.
After her rise to fame in 2009 as a featured singer in rapper Flo Rida’s number-one single, “Right Round”, Kesha’s career took off with her own number-one 2009 single, “Tik Tok”, which went 8x platinum and sold 18 million copies worldwide.
In the years since, Kesha has released 32 singles, nine of which have been platinum-rated, including “Blah Blah Blah” (featuring 3OH!3), “Your Love Is My Drug”, “Take It Off”, “We R Who We R”, “Blow”, “Die Young”, “C’Mon”, “Crazy Kids” (featuring will.i.am and Juicy J), and “Praying.” She has released five studio albums, including the triple-platinum Animal (2010) and Rainbow (2017), both of which peaked at number one on the US charts. As of 2019, Kesha’s music has sold over 14 million album equivalents, and been streamed nearly nine billion times between audio and video. Her work has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, and 12 MTV awards internationally, including one win. She won the 2016 Billboard Women in Music Trailblazer Award and was nominated for the 2018 GLAAD Media Award.
Kesha’s career was interrupted for two years in the 2010s due to a series of lawsuits with her former producer, Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald, known as Dr. Luke. She accused him of sexual and physical abuse, and he in turn claimed breach of contract and defamation, suing both Kesha and her mother. The case was eventually settled out of court in 2023.
Kesha had previously come out as bi. In a 2013 interview with Seventeen, she said,
I don’t love just men. I love people. It’s not about a gender. It’s just about the spirit that exudes from that other person you’re with.[1]
As recently as 2019, she told Attitude magazine.
I never hid [my bisexuality] from anybody. I never had a moment of feeling I had to come out about it. It was always there. I think I had a conversation with a gay magazine in the US and they just asked me, ‘Oh, are you bisexual?’ and I was like, ‘Obviously!’
In 2022, however, she backed away from the bi label, despite affirming her attraction to both men and women, saying, “I’m not gay. I’m not straight. I don’t know what I am.”
“Rainbow”, the first single of her hit album of the same name, was written while overcoming an eating disorder. When talking about the symbolism of the song, she also talks about hope for the LGBT community.
For the past couple of years, color has been symbolic of hope for me. I don’t think it is a coincidence that it’s also symbolic for the LGBT community, a sign of freedom to be yourself and celebrate who you are no matter what anyone else thinks. I have been trying to bring more color into my life because that light brings me more happiness and joy.[2]
Kesha began promoting her sixth studio album with the release of “Joyride” in July 2024, revealing her start as an independent artist under Kesha Records. “Joyride” was her first song to chart on the UK Singles Chart since 2017, secured top-ten positions on three U.S. charts, and has gathered nearly 100 million streams on Spotify.