Kesha makes a comeback

For her third act, she drops the dollar sign and lays bare her soul

DONE WITH THE DOLLAR After her mom, songwriter Patricia Sebert, persuaded her to pursue a career in music she landed a record deal and established herself as an electropop songstress. But the Tik Tok singer has since dropped the $ from her moniker and is set on rediscovering her roots. “I’ve always loved country music and listened to it a lot growing up,” says the 30-year-old singer, who was born and raised in the home of country – Nashville, Tennessee in the US. “So now I’m kind of allowing myself to tap into my musical roots.”

OVER THE RAINBOW “This is is truly from the inside of my guts,” Kesha says of her third album,

Rainbow, which recently debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. The success is all the more sweet after a legal battle in which her charges of sexual assault against music producer Dr Luke (Lukasz Gottwald) were dismissed and she failed to be released from her contract with Sony. “I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be able to put out music again – and it’s all I’d ever wanted to do. So when I couldn’t, that was really difficult.”

WEIGHT BATTLES “The music industry has set unrealistic expectations for what a body is supposed to look like. I became overly critical of my own body because of that.” She developed an eating disorder but says she felt most validated at her lowest. “The worse it got the more positive feedback I got. Inside I was really unhappy but outside people were like, ‘Wow, you look great!’” Since a 2014 stint in rehab to treat the disorder she’s been healthier, happier and sporting a fuller figure.

DIGITAL DETOX The We R Who We R singer has also opened up about her recent decision to give herself regular breaks from social media: “I love it because it’s how I communicate with my fans, but too much of it can exacerbate my anxiety and depression,” she says.