When I say the name Kesha, a lot of you might automatically think of the famous song “TiK ToK” and will switch out the “s” in her name with a dollar sign symbol in your head. However, I am writing this article to say that boy-crazy, party animal, wild child is now gone and a beautiful Queen has risen from the ashes.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, the famous pop-star Kesha was recently involved in a long, harrowing lawsuit to get out of her contract with Sony Music and her producer Dr. Luke. She claimed Dr. Luke abused her physically, sexually, and emotionally while she worked with him and took him to court to get released from the contract back in 2014. During the court process, she was also denied another hearing that would have granted her permission to record music outside of her contract with Sony and Dr. Luke. This is the reason why we hadn’t heard anything from her between “Warrior” and “Rainbow”, although she did do a few singles with some other musicians. While she was in court for three years fighting to be freed and dealing with Dr. Luke’s countersuit claiming she was defaming him, Kesha received an incredible amount of support from her fans and many other female artists as well. The two most notable supporters were Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift who donated $25,000 to her to help with the lawsuit. Just recently, she was finally released from her contract but not because of the lawsuit. In fact, the judge threw out most of Kesha’s claims against Dr. Luke which involved sexual assault. So, unfortunately, the court failed Kesha and she was only released from the contract because it expired.

This is probably one of the most heartbreaking lawsuit results I’ve ever heard. Kesha wasn’t suing Dr. Luke to get “a bigger, or a better, deal” in a new contract. She was just trying to get away from the man who was abusing her. She even made an Instagram post describing how she would be released from her contract only if she apologized and backed down from her claims.

This is the problem a lot of women face when they make sexual assault claims. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to think people don’t take it seriously when women come forward about being abused. And that’s why a lot of women stay silent for so long. Because they are afraid. So they suffer until they feel their only way out is to give up. Fortunately, Kesha didn’t give up. She refused to stay silent and continued fighting until her contract finally expired.

And now, we have been graced with her amazing new album “Rainbow”. Back in July of this year, Kesha had tweeted she was releasing her first single since the lawsuit entitled “Praying”. When the song was released on July 6, 2017, it hit the Billboards Bubbling Under Hot 100 at number four and also had 17,738 copies sold in only its first day. This single was a hit for obvious reasons since it was Kesha’s first stand-alone single in three years. And then, “Rainbow” was dropped.

This is honestly one of the best albums I’ver heard in a long time. The last time I actually downloaded a full album was back in middle school and it was every single one of Paramore’s. And Kesha’s album is an entirely different experience than what most people probably remember. No two songs are the same, almost like she’s dipping her toe in as many genres of music as she can to get a taste for all of them. She has truly grown up so much since “Warrior” although there are some songs which sound like the “old Ke$ha”: “Woman”, “Boots”, and "Hunt You Down" to name a few. One of the biggest problems Kesha had with Dr. Luke was that he wouldn’t let her release her own music and what he did allow her to record was changed so drastically, it was more his own work than hers. To think there are so many gems Kesha had held on to all these years that no one ever got to listen to! Now that she’s out of her contract with Dr. Luke, I sincerely hope, like a lot of other fans, that we’ll get to hear a lot more of Kesha’s stuff now that she’s free to make whatever she wants.

Kesha has honestly been a true beacon of hope for me and for a lot of other people out there. While she was under her contract with Dr. Luke, she suffered from anorexia, bulimia, and depression and almost gave up. But, because she’s such an incredibly strong individual, she refused to let her abuser win. It’s such an amazing win for her to have been able to finally release her own album with her own music without having Dr. Luke crushing her creativity. In multiple interviews since “Praying” hit iTunes and Spotify, Kesha’s been very open about how personal every song on her new album is. All of them are about conquering your fears and learning to love and be yourself as well as having to struggle to survive. And as Kesha described in an interview on “Good Morning America”, “I think color symbolizes hope and a rainbow, you know, is a coincidence that it’s also the symbol for the LGBTQ community. […] But I’ve always found, like, the hope in the bright colors and I wanted to bring that more into my everyday life […].” True words, spoken by a true queen.