Kesha’s New Single Is A Defiant Empowerment Anthem

Kesha is a motherfuckerrr. Her words, not ours. The singer continues  her return from the void with the release of yet another new song plainly called “Woman.” This song, a joyous female empowerment anthem, cuts right to the chase. “I’m a motherfucking woman,” she declares in the song’s chorus. And like her first official comeback single, “Praying,” this single also comes with a video, which Kesha and her friends pulled together in a week. It’s basically her and her touring band, the Creepies, singing their asses off in a glittery dive bar which she lets us know is actually the Oddity Bar in Delaware, in case you’re in the area this summer.

In many ways, this is a return to the old Kesha, a riotous ball of energy who just wants to have fun. Except now she’s doing things her way. Instead of the synths and auto-tune that defined her earlier work, this track is being made with real instruments, with Kesha enlisting the help of the Dap-Kings horn section to add some brassy verve to the proceedings. 

Kesha spoke about her musical transformation in an intimate new essay she penned for Rolling Stone, which debuted the video. She talks about how, on her last tour, ditching the usual pop star accessories—backup dancers, elaborate visual, vocal tracking—helped her gain a newfound confidence as a musician. “It was either me sing my ass off or sound like shit, because it was just me singing,” she wrote. “No safety net, nothing to help out or distract from anything if I hit a fucked up note. It put the pressure on me in a good way. I had to rise to the occasion and take control of my voice and in the process I gained a lot of confidence in my vocal ability I've never had before.”

You can read the full essay here, and watch the video above.