Kesha’s Lollapalooza performance had everyone talking when she started dancing around the stage with a real knife. However, she says she was planning to use a fake blade.
“Sooooo apparently the prop knife went missing and they replaced it with a real butcher knife stolen from the kitchen,” Kesha, 37, alleged via X hours after her Thursday, August 1, performance. “I didn’t know. Till now. So watch that again.”
Kesha performed at the popular Chicago music festival on Thursday, in which she held onto the knife while performing her song “Backstabber.”
Kesha did not reveal who allegedly switched out the prop blade, but she was excited about her overall festival appearance.
“Grateful for my boys,” she wrote via Instagram Story that night, sharing footage of herself hugging her band members. “[And] so grateful for my besties.”
Kesha’s Lolla set was one of her first public performances since leaving Dr. Luke’s label. Five of her most recent albums were released under Luke’s Kemosabe Records before Kesha left in December 2023.
Months earlier in June 2023, Kesha and Luke, 50, settled their defamation lawsuit. The “Tik Tok” singer claimed in 2014 that Luke previously allegedly assaulted her in 2005 after she woke up in his bed “sore and sick with no memory of how she got there.”
Kesha named the music producer in a lawsuit, claiming Luke threatened to “shut her career down” if she mentioned the alleged incident.
Luke denied the claims before filing a defamation lawsuit against Kesha. His lawyer told Us Weekly at the time that Kesha’s allegations were part of a “campaign of publishing outrageous and untrue statements.”
Kesha dropped her lawsuit in August 2016, choosing instead to focus on ending her recording contract. Luke, however, proceeded with his defamation suit. They were scheduled to go to trial in July 2023 before reaching a settlement one month earlier.
“While I appreciate Kesha again acknowledging that she cannot recount what happened that night in 2005, I am absolutely certain that nothing happened,” Luke wrote via Instagram in June 2023. “I never drugged or assaulted her and would never do that to anyone. For the sake of my family, I have vigorously fought to clear my name for nearly 10 years. It is time for me to put this difficult matter behind me and move on with my life. I wish Kesha well.”
Kesha has since been focused on releasing new music outside of Kemosabe. Her single “Joyride” dropped last month.
“I’ll say this: I’ve never felt happier, more excited, more at peace and had such a purpose in my entire life,” she told V magazine in February. “And I feel like I have earned the right to be this happy for sure. So letting that be … I am loving every minute of what feels like a brand-new and very exciting chapter.”
