Top: Lady Gaga, Bottom: Taylor Swift, Right: Kesha

The entertainment world can be a cruel place and the music industry is no different. Sometimes called “soul suckers,” record labels have been known to squeeze out the best of artists, lock them into long contracts, and then ignore them when trends change or expectations are not met. The chance of any singer/songwriter/musician garnering recognizable success is well under 10 percent. So when a recording artist like Kesha reaches international fame, it requires an enormous amount of hard work, sacrifice, and tenacity on her part. One does not wait to be discovered and most “instant success” stories take an average of ten years. For women the game can be twice as hard.

Now entrenched in a legal battle with her longtime producer and record label, Kesha has experienced some of the worst abuses the music industry has to dish out. But in speaking up about the abuses, she is receiving tremendous support from industry peers, family, fans and much of the public. In her legal battles, she fights not only for her own emotional well being and music career, she also fights for the millions of women who experience sexism and sexual abuse in the workplace every day.

Growing up in Nashville, Kesha learned a bit about the music business at a very early age from her mother, tunesmith Pebe Sebert. In trying to survive within the industry, Pebe often took Kesha and her brother to publishing and songwriting meetings, as well as to recording sessions. They lived on very little, but Kesha says she was happy. Creative and “crafty,” she also understood what it was like to be bullied for being different. But she could not have imagined the intensity of bullying she would receive after reporting sexual abuse within the industry. “Slut-shaming” and “victim-blaming” are common attacks against those who report rape/sexual abuse. Magnify that scorn a thousand times if you are a public figure.

Last week, Kesha wrote this on her Instagram page:

“I have nothing left to hide. I did this because the truth was eating away my soul and killing me from the inside. this is not just for me. this is for every woman, every human who has ever been abused. sexually. emotionally. mentally. I had to tell the truth. so the outcome will be what it will be. there's nothing left I can do. it's just so scary to have zero control in your fate. but this is my path this life for whatever reason.…” -Kesha

Mahita Gajanan with The Guardian wrote an extensive story about the pop singer last week after Kesha lost a court battle in New York by a Federal judge who refused her request to be released from her record company, which is a subsidiary of Sony.

The 28-year-old, once tipped as the next Lady Gaga, instead finds herself at the center of a legal battle in which she alleges she suffered 10 years as “a victim of mental manipulation, emotional abuse and an instance of sexual assault” at the hands of her mentor and long-time music producer Lukasz Gottwald, better know as Dr Luke, who founded Kemosabe. He vigorously denies all the allegations. The judge’s ruling has caused uproar. Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, Jessica Chastain and Lorde have all pledged their support for Kesha’s attempt to contractually free herself from the producer she alleges was also her abuser. “When I saw the outcome of Kesha’s court case last Friday, I felt sick,” wrote Lena Dunham in a lengthy essay criticizing the way the legal system treated such rape claims.

Great talents within the entertainment industry continue to reach out to Kesha. Last week, Taylor Swift donated $250,000 to help with Kesha’s legal costs, and Adele dedicated her first 2016 Brit award to the singer. X-Factor judge and recording artist Cheryl Fernandez-Versing also voiced her support last week. With this much outpour, it’s clear the issue of sexual assault/abusfe and sexism within the business is widely recognized, empathized and/or experienced.

Kesha’s climb up the music ladder was not easy. While preparing for her career as a singer, Kesha waited tables, wrote songs, and sang background vocals for artists like Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Flo Rida, sometimes living out of her car. In 2009 she signed with Dr Luke and her first album led off with the highly successful single, Tik Tok, which stayed in the No 1 position for nine weeks selling more than 2m copies. The debut’s video and lyric also created an image of Kesha as being a rowdy, “I-don’t-give-a-flip-about-what-you-think” party girl. Images can be very deceiving. In her interview with The Guardian, Kesha says:

Ke$ha performs live at the iHeartRadio Ultimate Pool Party Presented at Fontainebleau's BleauLive in Miami on June 29, 2013 in Miami Beach, Florida.

“Men sing about strippers, sex and drugs and it’s praised and glorified. When women sing about these things, we’re automatically demonized as sluts and drunks. It’s not true.”

The pressure of being an upcoming, edgy, beautiful, and sustaining international “pop princess” began to take its toll on Kesha emotionally. Along with the reported continuous nagging from Dr Luke about her weight, the singer found herself dealing with a life-threatening eating disorder. She checked herself into treatment and when she emerged, in March 2014, she sued Dr Luke for the alleged abuses, The producer counter-sued Kesha claiming she was lying and defaming him in order to get out of her recording contract. For those who might not believe Kesha’s story, one has to only wonder why anyone would put themselves through the ridicule, and risk of losing an entire career, just to get out of a record deal that has been successful. The question is “What would she stand to gain?” Dr. Luke faces eight criminal charges, which sexual assault. The battles are far from over. Kesha said in a lengthy statement on Facebook, Wednesday:

"All I ever wanted was to be able to make music without being afraid, scared, or abused,". "This case has never been about a renegotiation of my record contract – it was never about getting a bigger, or a better deal. This is about being free from my abuser. I would be willing to work with Sony if they do the right thing and break all ties that bind me to my abuser. But at this point, this issue is bigger than just about me."

On a personal note: As a veteran of the music industry in Nashville, I remember Kesha as a very little girl sitting in my publishing office with her mother Pebe Sebert. It was the first time I ever saw a songwriter bring children into a meeting, something that just wasn’t done, especially if you wanted to be taken seriously as a woman. As a mother, I remember feeling the greatest respect for Pebe. You could see she loved her kids, and they in turn seemed to understand what their mom was doing what she needed to do to make ends meet. So now, I can’t help think of Kesha, the little girl, and my own daughter, both who are grown — and it saddens me to know they face the same kind of sexism and sexual abuse Pebe and I had to face, as have most women during their lifetimes. Whether people choose to believe Kesha, as I do — or not believe her, there is no doubt that what she is doing is incredibly courageous. By speaking out, she is giving a voice to thousands, if not millions of women, and she is making a difference.