Kesha Wasn't Surprised She Got 'Re-Canceled' for Jeffrey Dahmer 'Cannibal' Lyric, Admits It Was 'Controversial' (Exclusive)
- - - Kesha Wasn't Surprised She Got 'Re-Canceled' for Jeffrey Dahmer 'Cannibal' Lyric, Admits It Was 'Controversial' (Exclusive)
Jack IrvinJuly 3, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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Kesha; Jeffrey Dahmer
Kesha's seen several of her hits go viral on TikTok
One in particular was "Cannibal," which found a resurgence and later ran into controversy
The pop star tells PEOPLE she was "re-canceled" for the song's lyrics, but she wasn't surprised
Many of Kesha's early hits have seen resurgences in popularity over the past couple years — thanks to TikTok.
Long before the video sharing platform officially launched in 2017, the pop star, 38, first coined the unique spelling of "tick tock" for her chart-topping 2009 debut single, "TiK ToK." Several years and more top-10 hits later, Kesha's watched some of her songs earn second lives on the app and spark discourse in the process.
"It's just an interesting time where that can happen now," Kesha tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "It's a trippy thing to witness, and it's so cool, and I love it. I'm connecting to a whole different audience that wasn't even alive when I wrote the songs."
One of her first track to go viral on TikTok was 2010's "Cannibal," a fan-favorite from the EP of the same name despite not getting released as an official single at the time. The song sparked a dance trend in 2020, centered around the second verse — including the lyric, "Be too sweet, and you'll be a goner / I'll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer."
Two years later, interest in Dahmer's cannibalistic crimes spiked due to Netflix's 2022 series: Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Some listeners began speaking out against Kesha's lyric, and her mom, Pebe Sebert, a cowriter on the song, defended her at the time.
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Kesha and Pebe Sebert in New York City in April 2025
"Oh my God, I got re-canceled for the Jeffrey Dahmer lyric," says Kesha, who wasn't surprised by the response. "It was a controversial lyric."
She declares, "If some people aren't offended by what I'm doing, I'm probably not doing a very good job of being a pop star."
Beyond "Cannibal," songs from Kesha's catalog including "Take It Off" and, more recently, "Your Love Is My Drug," have gone viral on TikTok. She welcomes the listenership — from old and new fans alike.
"I feel like the way people are consuming music is so different than it was, and will probably continue to get even more different. But it's a beautiful thing to watch a song you wrote, God, 15 years ago, and have seven-year-olds now relate to that song," she says, specifically referencing "Your Love Is My Drug."
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Kesha
Now, Kesha is gearing up to release her new album, . (PERIOD), through her own Kesha Records on Friday, July 4. It's her first project since the end of both her legal battle with Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and her long-held contract with Sony Music, and she feels more liberated than ever.
"For this chapter I really wanted to capture the moments where I felt liberated, safe, happy, playful, hot, horny, but all of it was coming from a whole place; I feel very whole," she says. "Now all of my energy gets to focus back on my true purpose—helping people feel seen, loved, safe and f---ing entertained as hell. My power is all back in my hands, and I'm excited."
For more on Kesha, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday, or subscribe here.
on People
Source: AOL Entertainment
