American Singer Songwriter Ke$ha (Kesha Rose Sebert) was born March 1, 1987 in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California. Ke$ha’s early life influenced her current music career. Her mother, Pebe Sebert, was also a singer and songwriter who struggled to support her two children. While Kei$ha was an infant, her mom would take her onstage while she was performing.
After winning a publishing deal in 1991, Ke$ha’s mom took her two children and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. As a result of the move, Kei$ha spent her early years attending a music school in the neighboring countryside. While she was growing up Ke$ha’s mom took her daughter to recording studios with her and encouraged her daughter to sing. As a result, Ke$ha was exposed to the music of many country music artists and learned to write songs. Featured in an episode of “The Simple Life” reality TV show with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, Ke$ha had an incident where she actually vomited in the closet of Paris Hilton.
At the age of seventeen she dropped out of Brentwood High School in Nashville to return to Los Angeles and pursue her music career full time. She decided that she wanted Prince to produce her music, so she found his Beverly Hills home and snuck into it. Once she was discovered, she was promptly thrown out, but not before she dropped off her demo with Prince himself. Her demo was carefully wrapped in a purple bow, the favorite color of Prince.
Kei$ha managed to survive on low income…
… and few gigs while pursuing her music career. At first she did some moonlighting as a waitress to make ends meet while furthering her music career in studios with different producers. During this time she met Dr. Luke who had come across her demos and was so impressed he contacted her with Max Martin. They began a working relationship immediately.
Between 2006 and 2009, Ke$ha music appeared in a variety of media, her song “Former Overexposed Blonde” appeared in “Degrassi: The Next Generation”, while “Backstabber” and “Chain Reaction” were used in the MTV reality TV show “The Hills”. During this time, she also co-wrote The Veronicas’ single, “This Love”, sang background vocals for Britney Spears’ song “Lace and Leather” and appeared in the video for Katy Perry’s single, “I Kissed a Girl” Her appearance in the video arose due to her being friends with Perry, they met frequently as aspiring pop singers in Los Angeles and shared many musical collaborators. Ke$ha currently lives in a shared mansion in Laurel Canyon.
She gained exposure in the mainstream media after being featured on Flo Rida’s single, “Right Round”. The collaboration came about when Flo Rida decided that the song needed a female voice, Ke$ha was then roped in for the part after being suggested by Dr. Luke, who was producing the song. Flo Rida liked the end result so much that he invited her to guest on another song, “Touch Me”, for his album. She turned down an offer to appear in the video for “Right Round”, because she wanted to strike out on her own.
Soon after, it was announced that she had signed with RCA Records through Dr. Luke and was working on her debut album which was released on January 5, 2010 in the US.
Ke$ha’s debut album immediately stole the top spot on Itunes Albums, gaining her both new fans and critics alike. Her first single, “TiK ToK”, was officially released to US radio on October 5, 2009. It features a cameo appearance by Diddy, which is not credited, but who is the inspiration for Kei$ha’s song.
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I’m not sure if that’s depressing, frightening or very impressive.
Depressing. Who heard her god awful voice and was like “duuude you’ve got to hear this girl!” Honestly she sounds like someone violently shaking an infant.
Katy Perry is hot though but her music is dreadful.
I had never heard of her until you sent me on your little scavenger hunt.
Cracked did a hilarious takedown of her: http://www.cracked.com/funny-4433-ke24ha/
Never heard of Ke$sha until today myself. I’m more convinced that I’m missing nothing by not listening to current music.
Especially with the huge ouevre Steely Dan have left us.
Are you reeling in the years?
Steely Dan’s music always made me feel like my cookies were going to escape the confines of my stomach!
“My Old School” is an awesome song.
Sorry the sound sucks on this.
Ke$ha redefines awful. I do not listen to much modern music but the Future Mrs. V does and the first time I heard her heavily synthesized catterwalling on the radio I looked at FMV and said “is this a joke?”
Funny thing. She’s actually quite a controversial figure here in Brentwood (my stomping grounds) and in spite of her success her parents openly voice their disapproval. Her parents got her into one of the best high schools in the nation, BGA, and she dropped out. Also with her music being so…well…filthy her parents have come out and said they never raised her to act that way and have encouraged other teen girls to not view their daughter as a role model. This is a family oriented area so in spite of being a local girl she’s not real popular. Our parks and recreation department even turned down her offer to do a concert here.
Wow!
Sometimes I wonder how much of the posing that hip-hop singers do is really just some kind of rebellion against their upbringing.
Tupac Shakur, for example, grew up in a relatively stable working class household, and developed his musical talent while singing gospel songs in a children’s choir. It was only after he went off to college and started hanging out with a group of angry radicals that he developed his “Thug Life” persona. And look how well that worked out for him.
Wasn’t his mom part of the Black Panther movement though?
My understanding on Ke$ha was she didn’t get that way until she started hanging out with songwriters downtown as a teenager. Most of the songwriters downtown come here from LA or NY so she must have caught some of their idiocy. I have heard she was never an especially good student though and was a bit of a troublemaker.
Kanye West had a similar upbringing. So did Michelle Obama. I grew up about ten miles from Michelle and she had more opportunities than I did. I’m not bitter about my upbringing. It’s hard to understand why she is?
The kinds of attitudes that made Tupac embrace the thug life and made Michelle Obama hate her country (until her husband got elected) are not IMHO a result of any kind of racial oppression or conflict; they aren’t learned naturally. They’re the result of those attitudes being taught to them by others.
Growing up in the melting pot that is California, my childhood circle of friends was about as diverse as it gets. I had white friends, black friends, hispanic friends, Asian friends, etc. We all hung out together, and it didn’t even occur to us that our skin color could be an issue. We lived in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, played the same video games, etc. and that’s all there was to it.
Then as we got older, our parents, teachers, culture, etc. pounded the message into our head, over and over again: white people are the bad guys, the oppressors. Minorities are the good guys, the victims. The white kids became filled with guilt for their ancestors’ crimes, and all the other kids were taught to be angry and resentful.
By high school, everything had changed: all the white kids hung out together, the black kids hung out together (and formed a club called the “Black Student Union,” whatever that meant), and so on.
Pardon the crassness, but if living in Hell-A has taught me one thing, “How Kei$ha Got a Record Deal” can be summed up in one (hyphenated) word: blow-jobs.
Really? The price for record deals must have gone up since Madonna got her’s because I can’t imagine anyone taking one of those from her…hand-job maybe.
Touche. I was actually trying to be nice, though. Honest.