After a New York court issued a key ruling that could have made it more difficult for Dr. Luke to win his case against Kesha, the pop star and Dr. Luke have settled their long-running lawsuit.
The agreement was reached just weeks before the case was set for trial. It ends nearly a decade of litigation between the two former creative partners. According to him, Kesha defamed him in 2014 when she claimed he had drugged and raped her after a 2005 party.
In a joint press release on social media that included statements from both sides, Kesha said, “only god knows what happened that night.”
“As I have always said, I cannot recount everything that happened,” she wrote. “I am looking forward to closing the door on this chapter of my life and beginning a new one. I wish nothing but peace to all parties involved.”
Dr. Luke said in his own statement that he was “sure that nothing happened” that night in 2005: “I did not drug or assault her. I would never do that to anyone.” “For the sake of my family, I have vigorously fought to clear my name for nearly ten years. It is time for me to put this difficult matter behind me and move on with my life. I wish Kesha well.”
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It comes just ten days after Kesha’s legal team won a critical victory in New York’s top appeals court. It ruled that Dr. Luke was a “public figure,” making his case far more difficult to prove, and said Kesha could recover her legal costs if she ultimately won.
Dr. Luke sued Kesha in 2014, claiming she made false rape allegations to “extort [him] into releasing her from the exclusive recording agreement.”
“Such malicious, destructive, and vengeful conduct lacks any legitimate purpose and should not be tolerated,” his lawyers wrote.
Kesha has long denied those allegations, saying the case was intended to silence a victim’s voice. In her lawsuit in California and counterclaim in the New York case, she accused him of assaulting and harassing her. Eventually, these claims were mostly dismissed or dropped.
This case is just one in a series of high-profile litigations in recent years where powerful and influential men have allegedly used or are using legal intimidation tactics to silence their alleged female victims.
In text messages between Kesha and Lady Gaga, it was alleged Luke had also assaulted Katy Perry. In a legal transcript, Luke’s lawyer asked Perry, “Do you believe that sexual assault or rape is consistent with Dr. Luke’s character?” “No,” Perry responded. When pressed, Perry said Luke had not raped her.
Even though Perry defended Luke’s character, she accused him of using her to salvage his public image. “He knows I’m a tiebreaker. Because when I say I wasn’t raped, because I was not, someone is lying. I want to stay out of it because I know them both and empathize with them.”
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Perry severed direct ties with Dr Luke after the Kesha allegations, though still used his production company on her subsequent album.
Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald, known professionally as Dr. Luke, Tyson Trax, and Made in China, began his award-winning professional music career on Saturday Night Live as its house band’s lead guitarist in 1997 and producing remixes for artists such as Bon Jovi and Gravediggaz. He came to prominence in 2004 for producing Kelly Clarkson’s single ‘Since U Been Gone’ with Swedish record producer Max Martin. He’s since worked with P!nk, Avril Lavigne, and Katy Perry.
Kemosabe Records signed Kesha in 2005, when she was 18 years old. She achieved her first major success in early 2009 after appearing on rapper Flo Rida’s number-one single ‘Right Round.’
Kesha’s music and image propelled her to immediate success. She has achieved two number-one albums on the US Billboard 200 with Animal (2010) and Rainbow (2017), as well as top-ten records with Warrior (2012) and High Road (2020). On the US Billboard Hot 100, Kesha has ten top-ten singles, including ‘Tik Tok,’ ‘Blah Blah Blah,’ ‘Your Love Is My Drug,’ ‘Take It Off,” Blow,’ ‘Die Young,’ ‘My First Kiss’ with 3OH3, ‘We R Who We R,’ ‘Right Round’ with Flo Rida, and ‘Timber’ with Pitbull. Tik Tok from 2009 sold over 14 million units internationally, becoming the best-selling digital single in history at that time.
Dr. Luke has consistently denied the allegations and continues working with other major music industry stars. Kesha has since released an independent album and is back on the music scene. The legal battle between the two has become a case study in the discussion of sexual assault in the entertainment industry.
