Why Has Katy Perry Chosen To Reunite With Accused Abuser Dr. Luke?

I’ve seldom seen excitement for something dissipate so thoroughly and so quickly in the fandom world. Katy Perry took to social media to tease her latest single, complete with sexy futuristic cover art that’s fitting for the current Y2K hyper-pop moment. The snippets we heard of ‘Woman’s World’ seemed to enthuse the Katycats. She gave fans a quick glimpse of the lyrics on the back of her Balenciaga dress during an appearance at Paris Fashion Week. We’re getting all the beats of a solid pop girlie promotional cycle. But then, within hours, we heard who had produced the song: Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald, better known as Dr. Luke. According to a source who talked to Rolling Stone, ‘Katy knew exactly the album she wanted to make and put together the team to make it happen.’ That team includes the man who produced some of her biggest songs, such as ‘Teenage Dream’, ‘I Kissed a Girl’, and Dark Horse.’ Gottwald is also known for having been accused of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by the singer Kesha.

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In October 2014, Kesha filed a lawsuit against Gottwald, alleging sexual assault and battery, and sought to get out of her contract with him. He countersued her, claiming it was extortion. A judge ruled against Kesha’s request to be freed from her contract with him. The defamation suit was settled last year. Gottwald maintains his innocence. Kesha released her fifth studio album, Gag Order, in April 2023, thus completing her contract with RCA and Gottwald’s Kemosabe Records.

While Gottwald never stopped working, Perry did notably step back from collaborating with him during this time. In 2017, she released Witness, her first album without Gottwald’s involvement. Witness was widely seen as a flop, massively underselling compared to 2013’s Prism and feeling muddled in its attempts to be what Perry called ‘purposeful pop.’ As Pitchfork put it in their review, ‘With Witness’ confounding combination of songwriting sloppiness and sleepiness, broad strokes are really the best Perry can hope for these days.’ It felt like she couldn’t compete with the heftier versions of poptimism put out by the likes of Lorde, Carly Rae Jepsen, and her one-time rival Taylor Swift. Her reign as the queen of pop came to an end. 2020’s Smile barely made a dent, even though critics liked this one more and it had some chart-ready bops that never took off.

Perry never went away. She made bank as a judge on American Idol, had an acclaimed and highly profitable Las Vegas residency, and has a few brand deals and product lines that have kept her visible for the past five or so years, even if she hasn’t been a Top 40 mainstay. Now, it seems she wants to be back at the peak of mainstream music success, and she’s decided the missing link between her heights and her current era was Gottwald. She wants her hits, and if she has to make a song called ‘Woman’s World’ with an accused rapist, so be it?

Aside from the ride-or-die stans who operate on the logic that everything their fave does is morally untouchable, it seems that the news of Gottwald’s presence on the single deflated much of the hype for it. You couldn’t help but sense the panicky flop sweat of it all. Yet I can also see why Perry thought she could get away with it. In the decade since Kesha made her allegations against him, Gottwald worked with the likes of Pitbull, Kim Petras (one of his most vocal defenders), Doja Cat, Lil Wayne, Latto, Nicki Minaj, and Young Thug. He’s had number one hits when Perry hasn’t. Everyone else cashed in on the accused rapist. Why can’t she? It’s inconvenient to take even the slightest ethical stance in a business where not doing so is excellent for your bottom line.

The music industry has never wholly experienced the reckoning promised by the #MeToo movement. Kesha’s accusations and her loss in court to get out of her contract happened before Harvey Weinstein was fully unmasked and sadly didn’t inspire much activist fervour beyond her fans. R. Kelly ran rampant through the business for decades without repercussions. When 2019’s Surviving R. Kelly brought those women and girls’ stories to the forefront, few people from the music industry were willing to go on-camera against him. In the UK, DJ and culture vulture Tim Westwood’s status as a predator, largely against Black girls and women, was an open secret that didn’t come to much until 2022. That same year, Gottwald was nominated for two Grammys for his work with Doja Cat.

Perhaps this new song is the bop of the summer (I doubt it; it sounds quite bad), but I have trouble imagining Perry selling a girlboss anthem to the world while sidestepping questions about her collaborator. What have her publicists instructed her to say when asked about it? Will she offer thoughts and prayers to Kesha, then talk effusively about how Dr. Luke is a great friend who has been nothing but supportive and respectful of her? According to a recent piece in the Daily Mail (yeah, I know), Perry was warned not to work with Gottwald again. She made the choice. She was under no contractual obligation to do so. This is what she wants.

And it’s what the business wants. They’ll always choose the money maker over the safety of women. Aren’t we tired of this? How many times do we have to go through this exact same cycle before we all snap? Perry will drive off in her Cybertruck and pretend nothing is wrong as long as she wails loud enough about how we girls are so cute. The transparent desperation of it all won’t disappear though. She’ll be dancing on stage, begging people to stream on Spotify, and Łukasz Gottwald will be the name hovering forever over her head. Sorry, Katycats. That’s your reality.

Seemingly in response to the news, Kesha simply tweeted ‘lol.’

lol

— kesha (@KeshaRose) June 17, 2024