Kesha was visibly emotional in her new TED Talk as she described her struggle to persevere during her years-long legal battle with music producer Dr. Luke.
In the video, which was posted Thursday, the 37-year-old singer talked about how she used the emotions that engulfed her during her litigation to fuel her creativity and songwriting.
Kesha announced she would record a TED talk in March of this year and gave the presentation, titled The Alchemy of Pop, in April in Vancouver.
Though she referenced her struggles in court and at her label with Dr. Luke, the singer, born Kesha Rose Sebert, kept the details vague as she focused on her songwriting.
In particular, she described the emotions that drove her to write her 2009 single Tik Tok (recorded in 2008, the years Kesha claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Dr. Luke after claiming he had previously drugged and raped her in a 2005 incident) and her 2017 song Praying.
Kesha, 37, sounded excited in her TED Talk, The Alchemy Of Pop, as she shared her thoughts on songwriting and referenced her years of legal disputes with producer Dr. Luke.
Kesha sued Dr. Luke—real name Lukasz Gottwald—in 2014, alleging that he had drugged and raped her years earlier. He denied the allegations and later sued her for defamation; seen in 2014 in Hollywood
“I found myself in the middle of a very ugly dispute with the very person to whom I had given the rights to my recorded voice. I had lost the rights to my voice, and in that sense, I felt like I had lost the rights to myself,” Kesha said.
“It was very public. It was very painful. I was very angry. So I did what I do with all my emotions and I wrote my way through it,” she continued.
The singer warned the audience that she might start crying as she spoke about regaining her freedom.
Although she was visibly shaken, she managed to continue speaking in a strong voice.
“On March 6, 2024, I regained the legal rights to my own voice. And with it, a new freedom for the first time in almost 20 years,” she said defiantly, prompting a wave of cheers and applause from the audience.
“It’s funny how you can lose the right to your own voice, but you can never lose the right to your truth,” she added.
Kesha focused largely on how therapeutic her songwriting had been over the years, saying the process could help heal personal emotional issues, both for the songwriter and for listeners who were touched by her song.
She also described the tumultuous nature of songwriting, as she had to search deep within herself to find material for her songs.
Before recording her TED Talk, Kesha taught the two-and-a-half-week course The Alchemy of Pop Music earlier this year at Esalen.
Following Kesha’s lawsuit alleging that Dr. Luke had drugged and raped her, something he has strenuously denied, the producer filed a defamation suit against her in which he said she fabricated the allegations and had tarnished his character.
The lawsuits were eventually settled in June 2023. During the announcement, Kesha said that “God only knows what happened that night,” referencing the night she claimed to have been sexually assaulted.
“I found myself in a very ugly lawsuit with the very person that I had given the rights to my recorded voice to. I had lost the rights to my voice, and in that I felt like I had lost the rights to myself,” Kesha said while speaking about 2009’s Tik Tok and 2017’s Praying.
“It was very public. It was very painful. I was very angry. So I did what I do with all my emotions and I wrote to get through it.” She was seen leaving the New York State Supreme Court in 2015.
Dr. Luke is responsible for producing some of the biggest hits of the past few decades and continues to have chart successes, although he now uses a pseudonym to avoid controversy; seen with Miley Cyrus in 2014
However, Dr Luke said he was “absolutely certain that nothing happened. I never drugged her or assaulted her.”
Kesha went on to say that she couldn’t “recount everything that happened” that night in question, but that she wished “nothing but peace to all parties involved.”
Dr. Luke, whose real name was Lukasz Gottwald, is one of the most successful producers of the last few decades and the songs he produced have been a regular fixture on the pop charts.
Kesha sued him in 2014, although Dr. Luke was never charged with any crimes related to his claims.