Free Kesha: Singer’s long, complex legal fight with Dr Luke – and why fans are rallying behind her

As Free Kesha trends once again across the world, we take a look at the complex legal battle between Kesha and Dr Luke that has spanned almost a decade.

Last Friday (11 February), a sense of unease spread slowly across social media as pop music fans tuned in to Kim Petras’ new EP.

The EP, titled Slut Pop, features songs like “Treat Me Like a Slut” and “Throat Goat”, which is all about oral sex. In other circumstances, it might have felt like an empowering ode to sexual submission – but as it was, people were conflicted.

That’s because the entire EP was produced and co-written by none other than Dr Luke, the one-time revered producer who made a name for himself by working with the likes of Katy Perry and Kesha.

Dr Luke was once an untouchable titan in the pop music landscape – and then, in October 2014, Kesha filed a civil lawsuit in which she accused him of emotional and sexual abuse. 

Shortly after Petras dropped her EP, Ben Abraham, a songwriter who co-wrote Kesha’s song “Praying”, tweeted: “Kesha’s still signed to Dr Luke. Just in case anyone forgot. It’s still in litigation. He still controls her releases. It’s been eight years. Women’s voices matter.” 

Just in case anyone forgot. It’s still in litigation. He still controls her releases. It’s been 8 years. Women’s voices matter ❤️

— Ben Abraham (@benabrahammusic) February 11, 2022

Slowly, the hashtag #FreeKesha started trending on Twitter, with fans expressing their hope that the world will sit up and pay attention once more to the complicated legal situation Kesha finds herself in. 

Kesha signed to Dr Luke’s label in 2005 when she was just 18 years old 

Kesha’s relationship with Dr Luke began in 2005 when she signed to Kemosabe Records, Dr Luke’s label. In 2009, she signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records (both, at the time, were part of Sony Music), and later that year she unleashed her debut single “Tik Tok” on the world. It became a massive hit, and went on to spend nine weeks at number one in the United States. The following year, she released her debut album Animal.

Dr Luke was heavily involved in Kesha’s career from the get-go, and he continued to wield creative control during the recording of her second studio album Warrior, which was released in 2012. The following year, a fan set up a petition calling for the singer to be “freed” from Dr Luke’s management, suggesting that he was “stunting” her growth as an artist.

That same year, the documentary series Kesha: My Crazy Beautiful Life aired. People were shocked when Kesha said she had little creative control over her second album. She claimed songs had been scrapped from the finished record without her consent.

It was already clear that the relationship between Kesha and Dr Luke had become uneasy – but nobody could have known just how bad things would get.

She asked the courts to free her from her contact with Dr Luke

In January 2014, Kesha checked into a rehabilitation facility and revealed that she had been suffering from bulimia. It was there that she started work on her third studio album, the record that would become Rainbow, and when she got out of rehab, she ditched the infamous dollar sign in her name publicly.

In October of that year, things changed forever for Kesha when she filed a civil lawsuit against Dr Luke. She accuse him of sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, emotional abuse and violation of business practices in California during their near-decade working together. Almost a year later, Kesha asked for a preliminary injunction that would release her from her contract with Kemosabe Records.

Dr Luke – who has always denied all of the allegations levelled against him – filed a countersuit claiming that Kesha and her mother had defamed him. He claimed that they had fabricated allegations of abuse so she could be released from her contract.

In February 2016, Kesha was dealt her first major setback – Justice Shirley Kornreich ruled against her request that she be freed from her contract with Kemosabe Records after Dr Luke said she wouldn’t have to work with him anymore.

“You’re asking the court to decimate a contract that was heavily negotiated and typical for the industry,” Kornreich told Kesha’s lawyers. “My instinct is to do the commercially reasonable thing.” 

Dr Luke denies raping Kesha

Shortly after that decision, Dr Luke tweeted: “I didn’t rape Kesha and I have never had sex with her. Kesha and I were friends for many years and she was like my little sister.”

Kesha later claimed on social media that she was told she would be freed from her record deal if she publicly retracted her rape and drug allegations against Dr Luke and apologised for lying. The singer said she rejected the offer, saying the truth could not be retracted. A spokesperson for Dr Luke denied that the settlement deal was ever offered.

Kesha was dealt her biggest legal blow in April 2016 when Kornreich dismissed the singer’s allegations of sexual assault, sexual harassment and gender violence.

“While Kesha’s [claim] alleges that she was sexually, physically and verbally abused by Gottwald for a decade, she describes only two specific instances of physical/sexual abuse,” Kornreich wrote in her decision. “And the most recent event described was alleged to have happened in 2008 and so falls outside of the statute of limitations.” 

In August, Kesha dropped her sexual abuse case in Los Angeles, but said the case would continue in New York. She said the lawsuit had been heavy on her “once free spirit” and that she would pray to “one day feel that happiness again”.

Kesha released ‘Praying’, widely thought to be about Dr Luke, on the label he founded

The following year, Kesha released the song “Praying”, and her third studio album Rainbow was released shortly afterwards. Both were released on Kemosabe Records, although Dr Luke was not credited as a songwriter or producer.

That same year, Dr Luke threatened to sue Kesha for defamation over a text she sent to Lady Gaga in which she claimed he had raped another artist. In August, Lady Gaga agreed to provide unredacted copies of texts Kesha sent her.

In 2018, details of that text were finally made public. According to court documents filed by Dr Luke, Kesha accused him of raping Katy Perry in texts to Lady Gaga. Those court documents revealed that Perry had given a deposition over the text conversation in which she said she had not been raped by Dr Luke.

Kesha’s legal team later told Variety: “It would have remained completely private, except that Dr Luke and his team took an email obtained only in discovery and decided to publish it to millions of people in his amended complaint against Kesha, and then claim reputational harm from his own widespread publication.” 

A judge ruled that Kesha defamed Dr Luke

In February 2020, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Schecter ruled that Kesha defamed Dr Luke in her February 2016 text exchange with Lady Gaga when she privately alleged that Dr Luke had raped Katy Perry. A defamation trial is yet to take place – as of October 2021, a start date hadn’t been scheduled. A judge was in the process of deciding what evidence would be admissible in the trial. 

In the background, a small number of artists have continued to work with Dr Luke, including Doja Cat and Kim Petras. The latter has defended herself from criticism, telling Buzzfeed News last year: “I just feel like a lot of it is like getting transferred to me. A lot of people like to blame it on the women. I think I’m sometimes being held to a different standard than other artists.” 

Meanwhile, Kesha has continued to release music on Kemosabe Records, the label Dr Luke founded. All these years on, it’s still unclear when she will be free from the record deal she’s been fighting to get away from for the better part of a decade.

PinkNews has contacted representatives for Kesha, Dr Luke and Kim Petras for comment.