Dr. Luke Blocks Kesha’s Billboard Awards Performance
Last week, TMZ reported that Kesha would be giving a performance at this weekend’s Billboard Music Awards that directly addressed her ongoing legal battle with Dr. Luke, but it looks like that will no longer happen. Dick Clark Productions, which produces the awards show, released a statement today via Billboard that said she would not be allowed to perform after being blocked by Dr. Luke’s record label because they got wind of her plans due to the TMZ report:
Kesha accepted an invitation to perform on the show and she received written approval from Dr. Luke’s record label, Kemosabe Records. Kemosabe subsequently rescinded its approval following a media report on Wednesday May 11 regarding Kesha’s appearance on the BBMAs. Unfortunately, Kesha and Kemosabe have since been unable to come to an agreement for Kesha to perform on the show.
Dick clark productions has a long standing relationship with Kesha. We hope that the parties can come to an arrangement such that we can continue that long standing relationship with a performance by Kesha on the Billboard Music Awards stage on May 22nd.
UPDATE: Kesha has commented on the situation via Instagram, saying that she was planning to cover Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” without addressing Dr. Luke in any way. “I just wanted to make very clear that this performance was about me honoring one of my favorite songwriters of all time and has never had anything at all to do with Dr. Luke,” she writes. “I was never going to use a picture of him, speak of him or allude to my legal situation in any way. I simply wanted to sing a song I love to honor an artist I have always looked up to.”
UPDATE 2: Kesha’s now-cancelled Billboards Music Awards performance was apparently supposed to have an intro from Lena Denham, according to a new report from The New York Times.