Kesha’s breakout hit “Tik Tok” helped shape the pop culture of the early 2010s, but the singer shared that she doesn’t want the song to define her entire artistic identity.
While speaking on Monica Lewinsky’s Reclaiming podcast, Kesha opened up about how the massive popularity of her 2009 party anthem led to misconceptions about who she really is. “It’s interesting,” she said during the episode released Tuesday (July 8). “When you’re an artist and you’re a songwriter, you can write one song, and that defines you for so long.”
“I love ‘Tik Tok’ and I love that first album [2010’s Animal], like, these are my babies,” she added. “But I will say, to be put into a particular box was challenging. I felt like, ‘Oh, people aren’t seeing me.’”
The track, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, portrayed a lifestyle of drinking, partying, and carefree rebellion. This portrayal clashed with Kesha’s real personality, contributing to a public image she found hard to shake.
She cited one specific memory involving a performance in Dubai, where tabloids claimed she had been intoxicated on stage. In reality, she had just torn her ACL but chose to perform through the pain. Aside from her 2009 Lollapalooza show, she said she’s never consumed alcohol before a performance.
“Things like that have hurt me, and that people think … I don’t know, that hurt my feelings,” Kesha told Lewinsky. “Contrary to my entire public image, I’m actually quite terrified of substances. Like, I had my whiskey moment in my 20s, for sure, but anything else is pretty scary to me.” +++++
“But I’m also very lucky that [‘Tik Tok’] hit, and I think I tapped into a part of people’s brains that they needed,” she continued. “It was a recession, I was giving them unadulterated joy and silliness and goofiness and ‘F–k it, we’re having fun, I don’t care what anybody thinks.’ I do stand by it. That’s an important thing to feel.”
Over the years, the song has remained a favorite among fans. In late 2023, Kesha revised its famous opening line — “Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy” — removing the reference to the embattled rapper in response to abuse allegations brought against Sean “Diddy” Combs by Cassie Ventura.
With multiple accusations including sexual assault, sex trafficking, and racketeering emerging against Combs through 2024 and 2025, a seven-week criminal trial followed. Though he denied all charges, he received a partial acquittal earlier in July. In solidarity with the alleged victims, Kesha has consistently altered the lyric during performances, even singing “F–k P. Diddy” at Coachella 2024.
On the podcast, she recalled how quickly she decided to make the change.
“I was doing the Gag Order Tour,” she told Lewinsky. “I don’t even remember where I was. And I was like, ‘I’m changing it tonight.’ Everyone was like, ‘You’re insane. You’re going to change the opening line of your biggest song?’ I’m like, ‘100 f–king-percent I am.’”
Watch Kesha’s full interview with Lewinsky below:
