AFTER FOUR YEARS away from the music scene, today is the day that Kesha returned with a brand new song.
Praying was released this afternoon and will be on her forthcoming album Rainbow – which she will be releasing a new song from every week until it’s out on August 11.
And on first listen, people have been drawn to the song’s impactful spoken word monologue given it’s her first single since her legal battle with producer Dr Luke
Last year, a judge refused to end her contract with the producer, who Kesha claims drugged and sexually abused her for years. Dr Luke claims that Kesha has made up the allegations as a means of getting out of her contract and moving on to “more lucrative ones”.
And the monologue features the first lyrics she has officially released since. It reads:
Am I dead? Or is this one of those dreams? Those horrible dreams that seem like they last forever? If I am alive, why? If there is a God or whatever, something, somewhere, why have I been abandoned by everyone and everything I’ve ever known? I’ve ever loved? Stranded. What is the lesson? What is the point? 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.
It has struck a chord with Kesha’s fans today
And anyone who has felt “abandoned by everyone”
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The reviews concurred with the sentiments and pointed to the fact that the opening was a big statement that Kesha’s musical direction has changed.
As per Vox’s review this afternoon:
Right off the bat, Kesha wants you to know that “Praying” — not to mention Rainbow — isn’t going to be one of the dive bar party anthems she became known for after 2010’s “Tik Tok” launched her solo career. The video even opens with her in a coffin, and then on the surface of a lake, delivering a solemn monologue in which she wonders why she’s alive — “What is the lesson? What is the point?” — and whether or not some god “or whatever” is even listening.
Kesha released a couple of thank you videos to her fans on Instagram last night ahead of Praying’s release today saying that their “support, love and kindness has gotten me through hands down the hardest time of my entire life”
And in an essay for Lenny Letter last night, she spoke about what the song means to her at this time
She referenced that feeling of abandonment that she speaks of in the opening monologue of Praying:
I know that I was never abandoned by my fans, my animals, or my family, but when you are depressed — really, truly depressed — you feel like you have nothing.
This song is about me finding peace in the fact that I can’t control everything — because trying to control everyone was killing me. It’s about learning to let go and realize that the universe is in control of my fate, not me.
And concluded:
I’m just telling the truth about my life. This album is me. The most raw and real art I have ever created, and now it’s my gift to you. I hope you love it. Thank you for not giving up on me. We made it <3. I love you all so much.
It’s a powerful return to music from Kesha
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And it really has touched so many people with its defiant lyrics
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Welcome back, Kesha.
