Kesha — Praying
Published Oct 27, 2017
Kesha — Praying
Kesha’s new hit single, Praying, speaks out on the injustices of physical and verbal abuse, as well as sexual assalt and sexual harrasment.
With in this song Kesha is talking about the past few years she’s spent trying to free herself from her contract with Dr. Luke who allegedly drugged, and sexually and verbally assaulted her during her time recording with him at Sony. This song brings up relevant issues in our society regarding sexual assult. This song came out very recently which has been about a year after the Brock Turner case and many other cases that have provoked extreme controversy. There are so many cases of sexual assault and abuse in our world that seem to be over looked. Kesha makes it clear that abuse does not have to be physical but can also be verbal. Official court documents in Kesha’s case say that Dr. Luke abused [Kesha] in order to destroy her self-confidence, self-image, and self-worth so that he could maintain complete control over her life and career. Kesha conveys this in the very first verse by saying “You almost had me fooled/ Told me that I was nothing with out you”. Here she is explaing how Dr. Luke was verbaly manipulating her by saying that she would be nothing with out her and that her carrer would be over if she were to try to fight him.
What is most complling about this song is how Kesha responds to what her abuser has put her through. In the chorus she sings “I hope you’re somewhere praying, praying / I hope your soul is changing, changing / I hope you find your peace / Falling on your knees praying”. She hopes that Dr. Luke realizes that what he did was wrong. I think that in a way she is hoping that a person couldn’t really do all of those things and not feel bad about it — that there aren’t genuinly those kind of monsters in our world. But regardless, she hopes that this man changes and can come to term with what he did and find peace. She says in the bridge that “sometimes I pray for you at night / someday maybe you’ll see the light”. She wants Dr. Luke to feel the pain of what he did and repent for it.
In response to this song Kesha makes a statement that “there would be a lot less agression in the world if people really took care of themselves and loved themselves. There’s been a long time where I didn’t how to do that and I had to learn how to. And I found a lot of peace in my life. I have empathy for people, I see them being mean and it usually comes from an insecure place. And lyrically, that’s how that spins, I do hope they find peace”.
