Kesha is rising above.
The 32-year-old singer talks about her latest album, High Road, in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, and says it's about not letting a "tragedy" define her.
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In 2014, Kesha sued songwriter and producer Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, and claimed he raped and abused her. Dr. Luke has denied the allegations and countersued for defamation and breach of contract. In 2016, a judge denied Kesha's request to end her contract with Dr. Luke and Sony Music.
"I think it's about reclaiming my happiness and my voice and all aspects of my life, and not living in the tragedy of what everyone knows I've been through," Kesha says of High Road, which came out last Friday. "Kind of a defiance against being stuck and pigeonholed in one place forever, because of one situation."
"I want High Road to be my defiant statement that I can still make happy music, I can still make pop music, and I can still be happy, and at the same time have the juxtaposition of the really emotional and intense -- it's not that the vulnerability isn't there, but I really believe that High Road is the first record I've put out where I feel like I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone," she continues.
Kesha says with this album, she's "not trying to be anything that I'm not."
"I feel like everyone should be allowed to showcase all sides of their personalities, especially artists, and not just get stuck in one pigeonhole," she notes.
In the interview, Kesha also talked about striking up a friendship with 56-year-old Nicolas Cage. Kesha attended the premiere of his film, Color Out of Space, last month in Los Angeles after expressing her admiration for him on Twitter, and the two posed together for a picture on the red carpet. Cage later told USA Today of their meeting, "Kesha is a great lady, and we had a lot of fun. I've always admired Kesha for the music, she's incredibly talented. I was happy to meet her, and she was interested in the movie. So it was a nice time."
"He is just a pure, magnetic, strange, talented artist in the truest form," Kesha tells The Wall Street Journal of Cage. "I am very attracted to people like that."
It's a busy time for Kesha as she promotes her new album. On Monday, Kesha released her music video for the title track, "High Road."
The singer has slowly but surely been making a return to the spotlight. She performed her song, "Raising Hell," at the 2019 American Music Awards in November alongside Big Freedia, and in a surprise, also performed her 2009 debut single, "Tik Tok."
For more on the high-energy performance, watch the video below:
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