It Ain’t Your Rainbow: Respecting Kesha’s Choice To Drop Her Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Dr. Luke

The public tends to forget that behind every entertainer is a person. A person who, in spite of their extremely public career and notoriety, has the right to go about their life in a way that brings peace to their mind, body, and spirit without questions from an ever-invasive peanut gallery of witnesses.

After a nearly two-year long legal battle against music producer Lukasz Gottwald, better known as Dr. Luke, pop singer Kesha has decided to drop her sexual assault case against him in order to reinvigorate her near-dead singing career. As noted by Buzzfeed and Just Jared, the “Die Young” performer will continue to record and release music under Kemosabe Records, the label headed by Luke, and has delivered 28 new songs, including an as-of-yet unknown named single, to be considered for release.

Kesha has dropped her California lawsuit against Dr. Luke, says she wants to focus on music: https://t.co/FUAPcnQjTy pic.twitter.com/Yujk6HBdDG

— Mashable (@mashable) August 2, 2016

“Kesha is focused on getting back to work,” her lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, expressed in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “We have conveyed to Sony Music and the label Kesha’s strong desire to release the single and an album as soon as possible.”

As of now, the battle continues within the New York court system, where the singer, born Kesha Rose Sebert, filed a second claim not too long after the first one, but that’s neither here nor there at this moment. What matters now, despite the many voices who will somehow concur that her choice to move forward means that she was lying Dr. Luke, is that people respectfully allow her to have what she’s wanted since the beginning of this long and emotional litigious fight: her life.

Keep in mind that for two years — and that’s just to our knowledge, who actually knows just how long things were going on before the news went public — Kesha was in an extremely dark place because of Dr. Luke. This is the same person who, while making a living off of her, berated her body, her voice, her intelligence — which she has a lot of, so says UberFaces — and her massive talent. This beautiful, fun and glitter-loving girl wasn’t just a pop star; she was a full-blown pop powerhouse, with hits upon hits not just for herself, but for other artists such as Britney Spears (“Till The World Ends”), Ariana Grande (“Pink Champagne”), Miley Cyrus (“The Time of Our Lives”) and many others. And in a moment, it was all taken away from her because Dr. Luke stopped her not just from thriving, but from growing as an artist, a person, and a woman.

She has suffered long enough, and on this brave August night, Kesha herself decided to be done with it, and all of the pain that Dr. Luke imparted upon her. And that is, ladies and gentlemen, the bravest call anyone can make from such a harrowing experience.

In April 2016, after a three-year and four-month span of melodic silence between her last album, Warrior, and that particular point in time, Kesha appeared on a retooled version of Zedd’s “True Colors.” For fans of Kesha, it was a music return that most believed would never happen; but for Kesha herself, it was a grand statement to both her so-called abuser and to anyone who ever doubted that she would find her way back to the light again.

“No, I won’t apologize for the fire in my eyes,” she wailed with a power we never heard before. “Let me show you my, my true colors. It ain’t your rainbow.”

As for what happens from this point, it’s hard to say. The pop scene is known for being an incredibly fickle atmosphere, and although Kesha may be ready to take it on again, it may not be willing to accept her back. On top of that, she’ll also still have to deal with Dr. Luke on a somewhat personal, but mostly professional, level, and that’s got to pain her quite a bit. However, after such a arduous fight and far-too-much time, it’ll be on her own terms. After so long, she is the one in control of her sound, her spirit, and her life. She is the one who is ready to move on. This is Kesha’s rainbow, and it was never anyone else’s; not ours, and especially not Dr. Luke’s.

Let her shine as she sees fit, people. She’s earned it.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]