Kesha is topping off a triumphant comeback year with a powerful performance of her song "Praying" at the Grammys. Joined by a league of extraordinary women in pop including Cyndi Lauper, Camila Cabello, Bebe Rexha, Andra Day, and Best New Artist nominee Julia Michaels, Kesha will be bringing out the Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of women dedicated to singing protest songs.
Kesha's album, Rainbow, is nominated this year for Best Pop Vocal Album after years spent embroiled in a contentious legal battle against her alleged sexual abuser and music producer Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald which prevented her from putting out new music for six years (he denies the claims). The ballad being performed is also nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance. A return to the music industry is a difficult endeavor regardless of the circumstances, but a return that involves two Grammy nominations is almost unheard of.
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Not only will this performance be a beautiful celebration of Kesha's ability to overcome, but it will be a moment of acknowledgment for women everywhere who have done the same. A choir commands attention and what better time to command attention than in the course of one of the most important conversations being had right now?
"It's going to be powerful," assured longtime Grammys executive producer Ken Ehrlich to the Los Angeles Times. "It would be an amazingly strong performance under any circumstance, but when you factor in what's happening it becomes much more relevant, in a way. It's what I love most about this show. Obviously there's a lot of people wondering about Time's Up and #MeToo and what's so gratifying to me as a child of the '60s is seeing this fervent commitment to change by a new generation."
The Resistance Revival Chorus formed six months after the first Women's March in 2017. Their first public performance was in Times Square last July. Dressed in all white, 32 women performed an altered version of "Rich Man's House" with lyrical changes to send a direct and pointed message to the president.
Aside from this statement-making performance, a group of 15 mid-level industry executives who call themselves Voices in Entertainment organized an homage to the suffragettes, with the help of the Time's Up movement, in the form of a white rose campaign at the award show. Artists like Lady Gaga, Halsey, Rapsody, Kelly Clarkson, Cyndi Lauper, Dua Lipa, Camila Cabello, Khalid, and Rita Ora are all reportedly wearing white roses on the red carpet in solidarity.
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Ahead of the performance, Kesha posted a note for her followers on Twitter.
when i wrote praying, with ben abraham and ryan lewis, i just felt as if i had gotten a huge weight off of my shoulders. it felt like an emotional raw victory for myself, one step closer to healing. I never could have known what would've happened these past few years. pic.twitter.com/7qibyvdzNm
— kesha (@KeshaRose) January 27, 2018
"When i wrote praying, with ben abraham and ryan lewis, i just felt as if i had gotten a huge weight off of my shoulders," she began. "It felt like an emotional raw victory for myself, one step closer to healing. I never could have known what would've happened these past few years."
i just want to say that i needed this song in a very real way, im so proud and nervous and overwhelmed to be performing it at the grammys on sunday, and if you need it i hope this song finds you. ??
— kesha (@KeshaRose) January 27, 2018
"I just want to say that i needed this song in a very real way, im so proud and nervous and overwhelmed to be performing it at the grammys on sunday, and if you need it i hope this song finds you," she added.
In an interview with E! News on the red carpet, host James Corden revealed that he had seen a preview of Kesha's performance, and that it gave him full body tingles. It's safe to say, in the midst of #MeToo, this will be a healing moment for us all.
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