Kesha, Grimes and more rally around Kim Petras as she demands to be dropped by label
Kim Petras has asked to be dropped by her label after claiming she has not been ‘supported’. (Getty)
Kim Petras has asked to be dropped by her label after claiming she has not been 'supported'. (Getty)
Musicians including Kesha, Grimes and Shygirl have spoken out on the reality of major label contracts after trans pop star Kim Petras accused her label of “refusing” to release her new music.
In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter on Tuesday (20 January), 33-year-old “Broken” singer Kim Petras stated that she had officially asked to be dropped by her record label Republic Records, a brand owned by Universal Music.
“I’m tired of having no control over my own life or career. I want to continue to self fund and self curate my own music. This is why I have formally requested to be dropped by @RepublicRecords,” Petras wrote.
The singer, who became the first trans artist to win a Grammy award in a major category with her Sam Smith collaboration “Unholy”, claimed that her new album has been completed for six months but Republic Records is “refusing” to offer a release date for it.
“My album has been done for 6 months but my record label has refused to give me a release date or pay my collaborator’s [sic] for the work they’ve done,” she alleged.
Petras added that she also filmed a “self-funded music video” at the end of 2025 for her next single, but her record label “wouldn’t give [her] a release date” for it.
PinkNews has reached out to Universal Music for comment.
The “Future Starts Now” singer added that despite her historic success at the 2023 Grammy Awards, Republic Records provides “no support” for her music career.
“If it’s not a tiktok trend or 80s revival queerbaiting s**t these labels have no interest in supporting,” she added.
She went on to promise that she would soon be releasing her new album, titled Detour, “regardless” of whether her record label supports the release or not.
Petras’s public request to be dropped by her major label has reinvigorated an omnipresent conversation about the difficulties musicians face when they are signed to major labels.
“Praying” singer Kesha replied directly to Petras’s post about asking to be let go by her label, stating that “freedom” should be “a birthright”.
“I spent many years fighting for the rights to myself,” she wrote. “Watching another woman realize that the ‘golden cage’ is still a cage isn’t a victory – it’s a tragedy we have to stop repeating. Freedom isn’t a privilege; it’s a birthright. I hear you, I’m sorry Kim.”
In 2023, Kesha reached a settlement in her decade-long legal battle with music producer Dr Luke, after she filed a lawsuit in 2014 accusing him of “sexually, physically, verbally and emotionally” abusing her. Dr Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, countersued Kesha for defamation, claiming that she had fabricated the accusations to be freed from her record contract. Dr Luke continued to deny Kesha’s claims in a statement outlining their settlement, and both parties said they had “agreed to a resolution”. Kesha founded her own label, Kesha Records, in 2024.
Petras, who has collaborated with Dr Luke on some of her biggest hits, had previously said she had “a positive experience” with the producer, but did not want to “dismiss” other people’s alleged experiences.
In a series of lengthy posts on X, musician and Elon Musk’s former partner Grimes said that “every artist [she’d] ever met was in some point in a terrible label situation”.
“Very little effort is put into taking care of artists,” she continued. “We are expendable and sometimes I suspect they purposefully try to break the best ones so no one else can have them and they can steal their ideas and thrust them on to someone else whose dreams are so big they’ll accept the abuse.”
On Instagram, queer DJ and producer Shygirl heaped praise on independent labels for their treatment of artists.
“I particularly love being with an independent label because when the new music takes time it’s just because I’m living life and making music in the time I want,” she wrote.
“People love to complain about the cons of being with a major [label], you can’t have the pros and pretend the cons are a surprise. You know what your [sic] getting into by now…”
After fans called out Shygirl for “criticising” Petras, the musician responded, writing that she didn’t intend to “shade” the “Unholy” singer, and was instead pointing out that Petras is just “the latest in a long line of artists getting done dirty by majors”.
“Fans need to direct the energy at asking why people sign in the first place when there are loads of independent labels that support artists better,” she wrote.
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