Kesha’s Back, Free & Giving It Her All

Playing an iconic venue like New York City’s Madison Square Garden is a dream for plenty of artists. For Kesha, the milestone has even greater meaning. The pop star not only sold out the arena in July as a newly independent artist, but she did so after settling a years-long legal battle with her former producer that at times threatened to derail her career.

“That was one of the greatest nights of my life,” says Kesha, who confirms that she filmed the show for a forthcoming concert special. “To have gone through what I’ve gone through in my life, and then this be the moment when my fans rallied around me so hard and sold out MSG? It really felt like a pointed moment that I can look back to for the rest of my life and say, ‘I’m through the hard part. I’m so loved. I have something to offer, and what I do matters.’”

The Tits Out Tour — a high-concept, high-production show that abstractly tells Kesha’s life story through her songs — kicked off the same month Kesha released her sixth studio album, . (or Period), on her very own Kesha Records after parting with her old label. Following years of fan rallying cries to #FreeKesha, the singer is finally, totally in control of her career — and she celebrated by making an album as carefree and joyful as anything she’s ever made, from red-blooded bangers like “BOY CRAZY.” to 2010s pop throwbacks like “YIPEE-KI-YAY.” with T-Pain. “I wanted to take my life back. I wanted to take my happiness back,” she says. “And that’s what I’m doing.”

On celebrating her MSG show:

I felt so alone for so long while I was in litigation. My heart got so closed off. But I realized: If I just open my heart on this stage, there are 20,000 people that want to love you. And so I let them cheer and let that really disintegrate all of this sh*t that had been blocking my heart. I literally felt my heart ripping open. I don’t know how else to describe it. I physically felt it in my body. That night changed my life.

On getting face time with her fans:

I go out into the crowd during the songs [from 2012’s Warrior] that were the hardest for me to heal my relationship with. Sometimes you need your community. The key to my healing with those songs is to reprogram the energy and the memories of them. To sing “Thinking Of You” at MSG surrounded by all that love and everybody screaming? It’s f*cking punk rock! That’s the energy that lives in those songs now — not the toxic, negative, experience that I remember from before.

On taking pride in her early work:

For a long time I thought the success of those songs wasn’t actually because of me. I internalized the negative things I’d heard and was so disempowered. Maybe I wrote them in a time that was unpleasant, or somebody made fun of me. I had all this internalized guilt and shame and embarrassment around certain songs and moments in life. [With this tour] I was like, “I’m just going to see — I’m going to take out all of the original production, so energetically it was just my voice, and I’m going to have only the parts that are mine.” And that’s what this summer proved to me: It was me all along. It was such a beautiful moment in the show to see everybody singing [those songs]. I love singing songs that my fans love.

On how she rang in her freedom:

I got a phone call on Dec. 6, 2023, that I’ll be free [from my old contract with Kemosabe Records] on March 6, and my birthday’s March 1. So the actual day I got my freedom, it was so close to my birthday. Me and 10 of my best friends went to this deserted beach in Mexico and just ran around naked on jet skis. We were riding horses and eating mushrooms and playing in the phosphorescent ocean — pure childlike joy.

On embracing failure:

I got the call that was going to lead to my freedom because the album I had just put out [Gag Order, since retitled Eat the Acid on streaming services] performed so poorly on the charts. That failure actually led me to my freedom, and I share that because it’s important to trust the process. Even when things feel like failures, you don’t know what the universe is unlocking for you through that failure. I made a record I’m so f*cking proud of. It’s my favorite piece of art I’ve ever made. And that performed so poorly that it led to my freedom. I think that’s incredible! There’s such a sense of humor to life. You never know what the f*ck is actually going on.

On joining Charli XCX for “Spring Breakers”:

I love that line [“art is not a competition”]. When I was coming up [in the music industry], the people around me would try to make me compete with my contemporaries. I remember thinking, “How on Earth am I supposed to compete with someone as talented as Charli, as talented as Gaga, as talented as Rihanna?” These are my girls that I listen to, that I’m a fan of, that I’m inspired by. They make me want to be better. They make me want to be more authentic. The only competition is with myself. That is the only competition happening in art: How authentic can I be? How much of myself can I bear to the whole world?

On her dating life:

After I got the call on Dec. 6, I meditated for an entire weekend and was like, “God, just tell me what is helping me become free. Tell me what I need.” I broke up with a man I was dating. He was lovely, he was very nice, but he wasn’t expanding into my next phase of life. Now I’m open to what the universe is bringing to me. I haven’t yet in my life felt the desire to get married, but I’m not opposed to it. It’s just all about being inspired and listening to my body. Until my body is saying, “You need to lock it down,” I’m just open.

On telling her audiences to get laid:

On my first tour, I used to say, “I hope you get laid!” Kind of being silly. And then because of the gravity of everything I was going through, I was like, “I can’t really say that. I can’t joke.” I had to tone my playfulness down for so long — and that’s why I end the show like that now, because I do hope everybody connects. I hope everybody has love. And I hope everybody gets laid.

Check out the rest of Bustle’s Entertainers Issue here, featuring interviews with Brittany Broski, Janelle James, Domhnall Gleeson, Nicole Scherzinger — and more to come!

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.