Kesha has just unveiled her first solo single and video in four years, but it’s not the time passed that makes Praying so significant: it’s everything that’s occurred her since then.
Her powerful, slow-building piano ballad comes after she laid numerous allegations of sexual abuse and manipulation against her producer, Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald, aka Dr. Luke. He has maintained his innocence.
In an ensuing court battle, Kesha was unable to sever her contract with Dr. Luke’s record label, and Praying – a track which references her alleged abuser in everything but name – has also been released through the Sony Records imprint he founded.
It’s through this tense framework that Kesha resurfaces. Redemptive imagery fills the clip, even after she asks “if there is a god, why have I been abandoned by everyone and everything I’ve ever known, I’ve ever loved?”
The pre-chorus shows the dynamic of a performer who fought hard to entirely distance herself from an alleged abuser and is working to move on, but still finds herself linked to him:
“And we both know all the truth I could tellI’ll just say this / I wish you farewell.”
