It has been a while since we have heard her voice on the radio, seen a risky photo on social media or seen her name in the papers, but this week Ke$ha came back with a sweet vengeance hoping that we would stand by her and pray. Or at least listen to her new song “Praying”, a revenge single against the man that tried to hold her back from producing new music, but also, a powerful love thy enemy and hope that he can recover from his terrible ways song.
The gospel-like ballad was released July 6th and is already creating a lot of buzz for its content.
From raw lyrics like, “God, give me a sign or I have to give up. I can’t do this anymore. Please just let me die. Being alive hurts too much,” are just some of the lyrics to how she starts out the “Praying” music video. It isn’t until we are really into the song that we find Ke$ha pulling herself back up from the trenches and professing her strength. “I’m proud of who I am. No more monsters, I can breathe again. And you said that I was done, but you were wrong. Now the best is yet to come.” Sounds like a roar from the top of the mountain that our fearless songstress is back and stronger than ever. While we are used to the fun, party girl, this song really allows us to see the raw, emotional side to Ke$ha that we don’t generally see, but we could get used to.
This is the first music we have heard from Ke$ha since 2013 due to her binding legal battle with her former producer, Dr. Luke. It is hard to forget the difficult time that Ke$ha has been going through since 2014 when she officially press charges against her label and former boss of sexual assault and battery. In 2016, #FreeKe$ha was trending, while she went to court to free herself from the label and the abuse. While Dr. Luke claimed that all of the accusations were false, the court ruled in his favor and denied Ke$ha’s request to break free from the label, due to the fact she had a contract with them to produce six more albums with them. During this time period, she was not allowed to release any new music unless it was under the label that Dr. Luke produced, but he didn’t have to participate in the album process, freeing her to work partially on her own.
Ke$ha’s highly anticipated new album will be released in August of 2017, her first album in five years. There will be a number of collaborations on there, including one with her own mother. I think that we can look forward to hearing more powerful songs like “Praying”, as well as a lot of uplifting songs to let us all know that we can get through anything. It is great to see Ke$ha back on her feet and creating music for us all to love!
Feature image via “KE$HA” by Becky-Sullivan / CC BY 2.0
