fashionista
Pop Princess She is irreverent, fun and a whole new level of crazy! Move over Britney, for Ke$ha’s the new pop princess in town and she’s ready to knock our socks off!
18
AUGUST 2010
K
e$ha was born Kesha Rose Serbet on March 1, 1987 in Los Angeles. Born to a single mother, Pebe Sebert – who was also a singer and songwriter – Ke$ha loved to sing as a child.
Her mother often found it hard to support both Kesha and older brother Lagan financially and the family sometimes had to live off welfare and food stamps. However, the bubbly young singer says she never felt deprived as a child, “Maybe I’m in denial. Maybe I need a
therapist. But I had a very complete childhood. I don’t feel like I missed out on anything.” When she was four, the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee where Pebe had secured a recording and publishing deal. Ke$ha would often accompany her mother to the recording studio as a child and would sing along with her mother between breaks. Mother and daughter would also write songs together after Ke$ha came home from school.
Though the young singer has a decidedly ‘fun’ image now, she was a very serious student in school. She
achieved near perfect SAT scores during her high school but dropped out when she was seventeen to pursue her singing career. At 18, the young ‘starlet in the making’ had been signed on to Dr Luke’s record label and publishing company. Whilst she had been actively singing since 2005 – she was a background singer on Paris Hilton’s Nothing In This World among many other small gigs, Ke$ha didn’t get her big break until 2009, when she featured on Flo Rida’s No. 1 single Right Round. Ke$ha insists that she didn’t earn a dime for the video. In her characteristic blunt, honest style
“You know what, if you don’t want to pay me, it’s fine. I’m excited to have my voice on the radio.” she says “I didn’t get credit, I didn’t get paid. Honestly, I walked into the studio and there was Flo Rida and Dr Luke doing the song, and I was like, ‘I’ll just sing on it. I’m just happy you like my voice enough to put me on your song.’ I believe in karma, so if I’m not a douchebag about that, it’ll just come back to me. So it’s like, ‘You know what, if you don’t want to pay me, it’s fine. I’m excited to have my voice on the radio”. Funnily enough, the dollar sign in her moniker is supposed to reflect irony, “I was talking to one of my friends about it (not earning from Right Round’s success) and I was like, “I literally had two dollars to my name, and she was like, ‘Whatever, you don’t need money: You’re money.’ And I was like, “Yeah! I’m money!” So it’s really just me making fun of the fact that I was broke while being on a number-one record. It’s actually just being ironic about the whole money thing, because I actually
AUGUST 2010
19
fashionista Her first album,’Animal’ was called ‘repulsive, obnoxious and ridiculously catchy’– in other words, plain, unapologetically great fun. stand for the opposite of putting a lot of emphasis on money.” Well, she certainly earned some good karma from Right Round. Ke$ha became a household name after the single was released, Her debut album Animal was released early this year and reached No.1 in the United States quickly. Her single Tik Tok, was No. 1 in eleven countries and was the first single in 2010 to reach that spot on Billboard Hot 100. The song spent nine weeks at the number one slot, breaking all sorts of records and becoming the longest running number one song by a female artiste since Debby Boone’s 1977 song You Light Up My Life. The Simpsons also used the song for their opening credits in an episode. It was the first time that the creators of the show had not played the traditional opening sequence at the start of the show. Her first album, Animal was called ‘repulsive, obnoxious and ridiculously catchy’ – in other words, plain, unapologetically great fun. Her music is unabashedly pop. The grungy pop princess is honest about the fact that pop music is a little passé, or well, ‘easy to hate’ to put it blunty. Ke$ha herself makes no apologies for her style of ‘mainstream’ music, “This is nothing to be embarrassed about. People like to have fun. And sure, there’s my deepest, darkest hipster side that wants, for whatever pretentious reason, to hate pop music. But I’m just trying to give people a way to
20
AUGUST 2010
think, it’s cool, you cannot hate my record. You know – it’s okay.” Is it really cool? Well, fans around the world certainly think so. They’re all crazy about Ke$ha’s constantadorable-foot-in-mouth way of talking, her self-titled ‘garbage-chic’ fashion style and her bouts of crazy. Her brand logo has quickly become glitter around her right eye. Whilst this seems a little puzzling, Ke$ha explains the glitter away easily, “If I smear glitter on my face, you don’t have a choice — you will be more attracted to me.” Her messy bed head hair with inyour-face highlights and streaks, smudged make up and her grungy clothes are also grabbing attention. Critics think she looks a mess, but Ke$ha’s not having any of it, citing Keith Urban as her fashion inspiration. Ke$ha put the dollar sign in her name to good use this June by planning on holding a concert in Nashville Tenessee to raise money for flood victims. The pop star’s home town is dear to her and in her own words, “Nashville helped shape me as an artist and as a person and my love for this city is beyond words. I will continue to do anything I can to help rebuild this city and support the families and animals who have been affected by this tragedy.” We can certainly be assured that Ke$ha will be making waves (radio and otherwise, teehee!) across the music industry for a long while. How do we sum up this spitfire of an artist? Well, why don’t we just let the pop princess answer this one? “So many people say, ‘So, what, are you a party girl?’ And I say, ‘I’m a walking good time’.” Well said Ke$ha! We’re certainly grinning away. Any chance we can borrow that glitter of yours sometime?
AUGUST 2010
21