Kesha

Her mother, Rosemary Patricia "Pebe" Sebert, is a singer-songwriter who co-wrote the 1978 single "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You" with Hugh Moffatt for Joe Sun, made popular by country music artist Dolly Parton on her 1980 album Dolly, Dolly, Dolly.

Pebe, a single mother, struggled financially while supporting herself, Kesha, and Kesha's older brother Lagan; they relied on welfare payments and food stamps to get by.

When Kesha was an infant, Pebe would often have to look after her onstage while performing.

Kesha says she has no knowledge of her father's identity.

Kesha Rose Sebert (born March 1, 1987), known mononymously as Kesha (formerly stylized as Ke$ha), is an American singer and songwriter.

Kesha was born on March 1, 1987, in Los Angeles.

Pebe moved the family to Nashville in 1991 after securing a new publishing deal for her songwriting.

She frequently brought Kesha and her brothers along to recording studios and encouraged Kesha to sing after noticing Kesha's talent.

Kesha attended Franklin High School and Brentwood High School, and said she did not fit in, explaining that her unconventional style (such as homemade purple velvet pants and purple hair) did not endear her to other students.

She played the trumpet and later the saxophone in the school marching band, and has said she was a diligent student.

She dropped out of school at 17 after Max Martin convinced her to return to Los Angeles to pursue a music career and earned her GED after.

In a 2024 interview, Kesha contradicted past statements, saying that she never earned her GED.

After attaining a near-perfect score on her SAT, she was offered a scholarship to Barnard College, an affiliate college of Columbia University, but decided to pursue her music career.

In addition to taking songwriting classes, Kesha was also taught how to write songs by Pebe, and they often wrote together when she returned home from high school.

Kesha began recording demos, which Pebe gave to people she knew in the music business.

Kesha was also in a band with Lagan.

Kesha and Pebe co-wrote the song "Stephen" when Kesha was 16.

Kesha then tracked down David Gamson, a producer she admired from Scritti Politti, who agreed to produce the song.

Around this time, Pebe answered an advertisement from the American reality TV series The Simple Life looking for an "eccentric" family to host Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.

In 2005, at age 18, she was signed to Kemosabe Records.

The episode featuring the Sebert family aired in 2005.

Martin had received one of Kesha's demos from Samantha Cox, senior director of writer/publisher relations at Broadcast Music Incorporated, and was impressed.

Billboard described two of the demos in a cover story, the first as "a gorgeously sung, self-penned country ballad" and the second as "a gobsmackingly awful trip-hop track" where Kesha raps ad lib for a minute after running out of lyrics.

It was the latter track that attracted attention.

Kesha's first major success came in early 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round".

Kesha's music and image propelled her to immediate success.

Her 2009 single "Tik Tok" was the best-selling digital single in history, selling over 14 million units internationally, until surpassed in 2011.

She released her fifth studio album, Gag Order, in May 2023.

She has earned two number-one albums on the US Billboard 200 with Animal (2010) and Rainbow (2017), and the top-ten records Warrior (2012) and High Road (2020).

She attained ten top-ten singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including "Tik Tok", "Right Round" with Flo Rida, "My First Kiss" with 3OH!3, "Blah Blah Blah", "Your Love Is My Drug", "Take It Off", "We R Who We R", "Blow", "Die Young", and "Timber" with Pitbull.

She was also listed as the 26th top artist on Billboard's 2010s decade-end charts.

She has received various awards and nominations, including the MTV Europe Music Award for Best New Act in 2010.

She has also co-written songs for other artists, including "Till the World Ends" (2011) for Britney Spears and songs for Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Miranda Cosgrove.

In 2011, a man named Bob Chamberlain who called himself her father approached Star with pictures and letters, claiming they proved that he and Kesha had been in regular contact as father and daughter before she turned 19.

Her mother is mostly of Hungarian descent.

One of Kesha's great-grandfathers was Polish.

As of 2013, Kesha has reportedly sold over 33 million combined tracks and ringtones in the U.S alone and over 55 million worldwide to date.

Kesha's career was halted between Warrior and Rainbow due to a legal dispute with her former producer Dr. Luke, which began in 2014.

A series of lawsuits, known collectively as Kesha v. Dr. Luke, were exchanged between the two parties in which Kesha accused him of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and employment discrimination against her, while Dr. Luke claimed breach of contract and defamation.

The case was settled out of court in June 2023.