Welcome back Kesha! It’s been six long years since she last performed at the American Music Awards in 2013 and she’s made one hell of a comeback. She performed her new single “Raising Hell” off her new album High Road which is set for release on Jan. 10, 2020. Since in the chorus she sings about how she “doesn’t want to go to heaven without raising hell” she took charge of the stage in a church service inspired performance, joined by New Orleans bounce icon Big Freedia. for one amazing romp.
But she didn’t stop there. Once that tune wrapped, Kesha put everyone in a time machine to bust into her breakthrough hit from 2009, “TiK ToK.” The audience went completely wild for it, as 10 years later she sounded just as amazing performing it. Kesha looked like she was having the time of her life being back onstage again during a big awards show and made every moment count.
“Raising Hell”‘s music video sees Kesha as a sort of bleach blonde Evangelical televised preacher who is married to an abusive and controlling husband. She tried to have a romantic moment with him and when he comes for her, she accidentally kills him. She then dyes her hair and goes on the run with his dead body in her car, only to get busted by the police. That didn’t happen in her AMAs performance, but she had chapel windows as her backdrop and her dancers wore pink costumes with rhinestone neck studs like a priest’s collar.
Oh yes, "TiK ToK" still slaps. Thank you @KeshaRose! #AMAs pic.twitter.com/F35pccQoYv
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) November 25, 2019
Kesha told Billboard in September that at the moment she is “writing the f**k out of some pop songs” to stay focused. “I dug through the emotional wreckage, and now…I can go back to talking a little bit of sh*t. I really wanted to put a solid footprint back into pop music, like, ‘I can do this, and I can do this on my own.’ I don’t know if this is my last pop record, but I want to have one where I go out with a bang.”