After news broke that Kesha will not be performing at this year’s Billboard Music Awards due to Dr. Luke’s label Kemosabe Records rescinding its approval, Lady Gaga took to social media to support her friend.
“Isn’t it strange that it’s legal to own a woman this way?” Gaga tweeted, including a link to a story reporting Dr. Luke was preventing Kesha’s performance. “Listen Ursula, we want her voice back. #freeKesha,” she added.
TMZ reported that Kesha was planning on delivering a performance that would reference her ongoing legal battle against her former producer, Dr. Luke. The singer accused the producer of abusing her sexually and emotionally in an October 2014 complaint.
Kesha took to Instagram following reports of the cancellation to express her frustration explaining that she was only planning on singing Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
“I just wanted to make very clear that this performance was about me honoring one of my favorite songwriters of all time and has never had anything at all to do with Dr. Luke,” she wrote. “I was never going to use a picture of him, speak of him, or allude to my legal situation in any way.”
Kesha’s fans and supporters are planning to boycott Sunday’s music awards. Care2 and Michael Eisele, author of the 230,600-signature Care2 petition to #FreeKesha, are also conducting a Twitterstorm urging celebrities who are attending the BBMAs, including Adele, Rihanna, Ludacris, Ashton Kutcher, and Demi Lovato to speak out and support Kesha during the show.
