Nashville, TN · pop · dance-pop

Kesha

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Reclaimed her own catalogue and her own name, and now plays the party records and the hard-won ones in the same set.

Kesha Rose Sebert was born in Los Angeles in 1987 to songwriter Pebe Sebert, who had written for artists including Dolly Parton. Pebe raised Kesha and her brother alone, at times relying on welfare, and moved the family to Nashville in 1991 after securing a new publishing deal. Kesha has said she does not know the identity of her father.

Before going solo, Kesha wrote and sang hooks for other artists, including an uncredited vocal on Flo Rida's 2009 number one "Right Round." Her early records leaned on talk-sung verses, Auto-Tune and party-oriented dance-pop, with "Tik Tok" the best known: released later that year, it briefly stood as the best-selling digital single in history.

Her debut album, Animal (2010), reached number one on the Billboard 200, and Warrior followed in 2012. She was named MTV Europe's Best New Act in 2010 and later ranked among Billboard's top artists of the decade, while also co-writing songs for Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and others.

A protracted legal dispute with producer Dr. Luke, filed in 2014, halted her career between Warrior and her next album and shaped the music that followed, which moved toward rawer vocals and country, gospel and rock textures alongside the electronic pop. The case, in which Kesha alleged abuse and Dr. Luke alleged breach of contract, was settled out of court in 2023.

Rainbow (2017) returned her to number one, followed by the top-ten High Road (2020) and Gag Order (2023), which completed her contract with Kemosabe and RCA. Her 2025 album Period, released independently on her own label, Kesha Records, marked her first record outside that deal. Live, her sets tend to combine the early club material with the later, more openly personal songs.

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