Last April, before her recent sexual abuse allegations against producer Dr. Luke, an unreleased Kesha song called “Dancing With The Devil” made its way online. It was shared widely by fans but failed to otherwise make an impression.
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The song is a charging, pop-rock lament about an inescapably toxic romantic and professional relationship.
With lyrics like "You and I made a deal, I was young and shit got real" and "So I'm all yours, until the end / a holy war that will never end," the song was believed by many to be about Kesha's volatile history with Luke, which began when he signed her at age 18.
Kesha's battles with Dr. Luke for creative control of her career have been well-documented. Their disagreements about the direction of her 2012 sophomore album Warrior were a major storyline in her short-lived MTV reality show My Crazy Beautiful Life. When Kesha checked into rehab for an eating disorder in January 2014, her mother Pebe publicly blamed Dr. Luke for inciting her condition with verbal abuse.
On "Dancing With The Devil," Kesha is self-critical of her part in the relationship and appears to resign herself to an unhappy state of affairs. "I sold my soul, it's a dead-end road," she sings. "But there ain't no turning back."