Brow Beat

Kesha’s Empowering Comeback Album Rainbow Debuts at No. 1

Kesha at a Spotify listening event celebrating Rainbow on July 28, 2017 in Malibu, California.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Spotify

Here’s some good news: Kesha’s empowering comeback album Rainbow will debut at No. 1 on this week’s Billboard 200 Albums chart.

Rainbow is Kesha’s first album in almost five years, three of which she spent attempting to free herself from a contract with her ex-producer and alleged abuser Dr. Luke. Courts repeatedly rejected her pleas to be released from the contract, despite the fact it prevented the artist formerly known as Ke$ha from making solo music with anyone other than a man whom she alleges sexually and emotionally abused her.

With Dr. Luke finally fired from the position of CEO of his label earlier this year, Kesha is back, first with the last month’s emotional single, “Praying,” and now with Rainbow. Fans have missed her—as well as taking the Billboard 200 top spot (for the first time since her 2010 debut, Animal), Kesha has just had the second biggest week for a female artist this year, coming in just behind the opening week of Katy Perry’s Witness. (And unlike Witness, Rainbow has received mostly positive critical reception.)

Kesha shared her gratitude with fans on Instagram, writing, “at a loss for words. thank you. thank you. thank you. there were many days that my music was simply a coping tool, for my emotions. PLEASE GOD i hope anyone reading this knows that they also have the power to turn emotion into art and reach the world.”

As Kesha sings in the stripped-back opening track, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

Kesha has dealt with her fair share of bastards, but with the success of Rainbow, she has a triumph that’s all her own.