User:Fixer23/Kesha

2009-present: Animal and Cannibal

Soon after, Kesha signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records through Dr. Luke's imprint, after negotiations with Lava Records and Flo Rida's record label, Atlantic Records as well. Having spent the previous six years working on her debut album, she began putting finishing touches to the album with Luke and Max Martin. Kesha said the album "accurately documents" the four years she spent in Los Angeles as a struggling singer-songwriter. She had accumulated over 200 songs which forced her to increase the tracklisting from the intended twelve songs to fourteen. The album was executive produced by Luke, who produced a majority of the songs with combinations of Martin, Benny Blanco and Ammo. The album is primarily of the dance-pop genre with electropop beats and synths, marking a shift in sound for Luke from his signature pop-rock productions, which he attributed to Kesha who was adamant that there be no guitars used on the record.

Kesha's debut single, "Tik Tok", was a commercial success, topping the charts in eleven countries; performing best in the US where it set the weekly record for the most digital downloads of a female artist and became the second best-selling single in a week, after "Right Round", by shifting 610,000 copies. RCA had noticed her strong following on social media when negotiating her contract and thus relied on viral marketing to build a following for her single, offering it for free a month before releasing it for digital download. "Tik Tok" was released for digital download in August 2009 and reached number one on iTunes in New Zealand without radio airplay. Radio stations soon began expressing interest in the song, but RCA/Jive Label Group chairman/CEO Barry Weiss decided to delay its shipping to radio by a month, to October, to let the song continue to build viral support digitally and good word of mouth.

Kesha at a French radio station in June 2010.

While "Tik Tok"'s airplay was not stellar right out of the gates, it soon gained enough momentum to give RCA the go ahead to release Animal in January 2010. Finance executives had pushed for a Christmas release to capitalize on the usual strong sales during that time period, but Weiss thought that the album would be lost in the shuffle among the many other releases released at that time. RCA were aware that Kesha could possibly only be able to sell singles and not albums and thus decided to price the album at $6.99 on iTunes to attract younger buyers. Animal debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, usurping Susan Boyle's album, which had spent five consecutive weeks at the top, receiving three quarters of its sales from digital sales. Animal received mixed reviews from music critics; Rolling Stone summed the album up as "repulsive, obnoxious and ridiculously catchy." "Blah Blah Blah", "Your Love Is My Drug" and "Take It Off" were released as the album's second, third and fourth singles, respectively. All three songs achieved similar commercial success each reaching the top ten in Australia, Canada, and the US.

Kesha would go on to sell two million albums by September, as well as featuring on two top ten singles by Taio Cruz and 3OH!3 through recommendations by Dr. Luke in May. Kesha's former managers from DAS Communications Inc. filed a lawsuit later that month, seeking $14 million from Kesha and $12 million from Luke for commissions on her RCA Records deal, alleging that she had extended the deadline for them to get her a major record label contract and squeezed them out of her career under pressure from Dr. Luke. Kesha launched her own lawsuit in October, citing the Talent Agencies Act, asking the California Labor Commissioner to declare her contract with DAS void because it had acted as an unlicensed talent agent while procuring work for her in California, where only licensed agents can do so.

Kesha held a benefit concert on June 16, 2010 where all proceeds went to aid victims of the May 2010 Tennessee floods from her hometown Nashville. She raised close to $70,000 from the event. She also donated 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of dog food to a local animal shelter for pets abandoned in the flood. She was a supporting act on the summer North American leg of Rihanna's Last Girl on Earth Tour. Kesha was awarded Best New Act at the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. Desiring to have more songs to perform on solo touring stops, Kesha decided to release an EP.

Kesha performing live on tour in October 2010.

Animal was re-released with a companion extended play, Cannibal, later that month. Cannibal was helmed by Dr. Luke again, who returned as executive producer and main producer along with Ammo, Max Martin and Benny Blanco. Musically, the songs are similar to Animal's, with the exception of "Sleazy" which was produced by Bangladesh. The EP was better received than its predecessor, receiving generally favorable reviews from music critcs. All Music Guide thought that its "brevity trump[ed] the scattershot Animal", with Kesha making the songs stick in the listener's head. Lead single, "We R Who We R" became only the 17th song to debut at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, three weeks before the album's release. The song's charting also gave Kesha her fifth straight top ten hit in the US. Second single, "Blow" also charted in the top ten on the Hot 100 in early 2011.

Kesha embarked on her first headlining world tour, Get Sleazy, in the spring. The tour was expanded with a summer leg due to the first leg selling out. Spin thought that Kesha lived up to her promise to present "an epic dance party" at the first tour date. She also co-wrote Britney Spears' top ten single, "Till the World Ends" and was featured on the official remix along with Spears and Nicki Minaj, which charted at number three in the US, in April.