Ever since Kesha released “Praying” and awed the world with her dazzling vocals, we’ve been rejoicing at her return to music.
(Her whole album, Rainbow, is out now in case you haven’t listened to it yet)
But Kesha’s doing more than music, these days — and is reaching out to Taylor Swift for the best possible reason.
Kesha’s accusations against the songwriter and record producer known as Dr. Luke (real name Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald) are very well known.
She waged a legal battle in an attempt to break away from him so that she could make music that wasn’t under his supervision.
The reason that she wanted to get away? Ten years of alleged mental abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse at his hands.
Tragically, the court ruled against Kesha, refusing to set her free of her contract, which effectively put her career in limbo.
It’s sort of unclear, at the moment, what ties — if any — Dr. Luke has to Kesha’s current music and the proceeds from it.
Nobody thinks that Kesha might be working with him, of course.
While our woefully inept legal system might not be equipped to hold Dr. Luke accountable, he was effectively tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.
Like, everybody hates Dr. Luke. And nobody kept their opinion quiet, either.
You had Adele speaking out about him. You had Taylor Swift sending Kesha’s legal fund a quarter of a million dollars.
Sony, the company involved in all of this, was absolutely horrified. Reports said that Sony was searching for a legal way to terminate their own ties with Dr. Luke.
But it’s Taylor Swift’s silent but powerful contribution to Kesha’s cause that we want to talk about.
Because while Taylor Swift may not have suffered to the degree of what Kesha describes for a decade, Taylor Swift has been embroiled in a recent legal battle.
And that battle has been over her own sexual assault.
Taylor Swift accused a radio DJ named David Mueller of groping her back in 2015.
Specifically, Mueller allegedly slid his hand up and grabbed Taylor’s bare butt, leaving her too stunned by the grope to immediately respond.
(That sort of “freezing up in shock” response is pretty common in response to a lot of sexual assaults)
Do worse things happen every single day? Absolutely.
Is crime relative? Is evil relative? No.
You don’t get a pass for stealing a car just because somebody else stole a person, and you don’t get a pass on grabbing somebody’s butt without permission just because someone else spent a decade under the thumb of a controlling abuser.
Mueller lost his job after Taylor went public with her accusation, and he then tried to sue her over it.
A judge tossed out the suit against Taylor Swift just last week, which was widely celebrated even by the people who’ve forsaken Taylor Swift in recent years.
Taylor Swift still has a court date today, however, for her own countersuit against Mueller.
And this is where Kesha comes in:
Kesha, whose star is once again on the rise, tweeted out her support to Taylor just a few hours ago:
“@taylorswift13 i support you always, and especially right now and admire your strength and fearlessness. truth is always the answer.”
That’s beautifully said and also publicly said.
While hopefully Taylor’s case shouldn’t need any help, every voice raised up against things that are awful — whether it’s sexual assault or the terrifying white nationalist rally over the weekend — helps.
Every good voice matters.
Speaking of Kesha’s good voice, by the way … have you heard her album yet?
She released Rainbow on Friday and it soared to the #1 spot (where it remains).
As much as we loved Kesha’s dancier club trash music from 2009 (and we really, truly love a lot of that), she’s moved on and we totally respect that.
We’re not going to review her whole album right here for you, but you should seriously go check it out.
She has a duet with Dolly Freaking Parton.
