Posted by Nate Jones on 12/19/2012 at 9:22 AM News

The Popdust Files: controversies, Die Young, kesha, newtown, twitter

Yesterday, this Ke$ha-”Die Young” story was fairly easy to understand. After Friday’s school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, radio stations across the country stopped playing Ke$ha’s comeback single out of concern that the song’s lyrics would be insensitive in the wake of the tragedy. A case of bad timing, ultimately, and not Ke$ha’s fault at all—but still, probably the right thing to do.

Now, though, the singer is claiming that she never wanted to record “Die Young” in the first place.

In a since-deleted tweet, Ke$ha apologized for the song’s lyrics, and implied that she had only put out the song after losing a battle with her label:

I had my very own issue with ‘die young’ for this reason. I did NOT want to sing those lyrics and I was FORCED TO.

If this is true, it squares the circle of much that was baffling about “Die Young,” and Warrior in general. Ke$ha spent much of the album’s promotional cycle talking about how she was working on a “rock record,” only for Warrior to continue the radio-friendly pop trajectory of her first LP. In her book, Ke$ha attributes this change to a polite conversation she had with Dr. Luke about the album’s need for dance hits, and implies she acquiesced to his decision without a fight. But if Ke$ha is the reckless rebel she paints herself as, would she have really bent so easily? We’re buying the idea that she lost some sort of behind-the-scenes power struggle, if only because we prefer the idea of Ke$ha the Sneering Warrior to Ke$ha the Quiet Compromiser.

In any case, Ke$ha’s offending tweet is long gone. Left behind is the second, much nicer apology:

I’m so so so sorry for anyone who has been effected by this tragedy.and I understand why my song is now inappropriate. words cannot express.

— ke$ha(@keshasuxx) December 19, 2012

 

No one’s going to argue with that.

[Idolator]