Kesha Channels Her Emotions into ‘Only Love Can Save Us Now’ Live Performance

Kesha showcased her recent song “Only Love Can Save Us Now” in a video performance for Vevo. Accompanied by a pair of musicians, Kesha performed the fast-talking track, which appears on her new album Gag Order, in a rectangular room with flickering lights, giving it a punk flair.

“I have had an overwhelming dichotomy of emotions, oscillating between pain and love. Chaos and love. Fear and love,” Kesha said in a statement. “I wanted my song ‘Only Love Can Save Us Now’ to sonically, lyrically, and emotionally reflect the severity of my mental pendulum swings. The world is so overwhelming sometimes. It requires a moment of surrender. The ludicrosity of life can make you crazy. If anything, if anything, can save us, I believe only love can. This song is a desperate and angry prayer. A call to the light when all feels lost.”

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Kesha recorded Gag Order, her fifth studio LP, with producer Rick Rubin. The album marks her first since 2020’s High Road.

“I feel like I’m giving birth to the most intimate thing I’ve ever created,” the singer told Rolling Stone of the album, released earlier this month. I really dug into some of my uglier emotions and sides of myself that are less fun. It’s scary being vulnerable. The fact that I have compiled an entire record of these emotions, of anger, of insecurity, of anxiety, of grief, of pain, of regret, all of that is so nerve-racking — but it’s also so healing.”

On the album, Kesha vaguely addresses her ongoing legal situation with Dr. Luke. (Kesha has accused the producer, real name Lukasz Gottwald, of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse; he has denied the allegations, and his defamation suit against Kesha is set to go to trial this summer.) While she’s not allowed to discuss the issue directly, she told Rolling Stone that the LP’s title sums up how she feels.

“I feel as if there has been an implied gag order for a very long time now,” Kesha noted. “With my ongoing litigation hanging over my head, I have not been able to speak freely because I know everything I say is scrutinized.”

In 2020, Kesha performed her songs “Raising Hell” and “Resentment” for Vevo.

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