New Year, New Documents in Kesha’s Case Against Dr. Luke

Details at this point are few, but several publications, including E!, are reporting that Lady Gaga and Katy Perry are somehow getting involved in the ongoing legal case between Kesha and Dr. Luke.

As a reminder: Dr. Luke signed Kesha to his Kemosabe label, an imprint of Sony, in 2005 and was integral to the release of her early hits. In a lawsuit first filed in 2014, Kesha tried to get out of her contract, claiming Dr. Luke (real name Lukasz Gottwald) drugged and raped her repeatedly at the start of her career. He’s countersued both Kesha (real name Kesha Sebert) and her mother, Phebe, for defamation and has denied any wrongdoing.

There have been lawsuits dropped and resurrected, victories and losses on both sides, performance opportunities dangled, taken away and given back within hours. It’s been ugly for all parties, including Pebe Sebert and Sony.

In the latest development, court documents were obtained by E! from a status hearing in New York City on December 26, in which the court “received and sealed a text message sent from Kesha to Lady Gaga in April 2016, which Dr. Luke is able to share with Mother Monster as well as Katy Perry,” the website reports.

“However, the context of the text message, what it says or how it will assist in the legal battle will remain confidential,” E! continues. Attorneys for Kesha and Dr. Luke will determine whether the texts will be released in open court and become part of the docket. It was noted that Kesha originally turned over the text message during the discovery phase of the lawsuit.

Lady Gaga, among other singers and stars, has been a vocal supporter of Kesha in her lawsuit against Dr. Luke for much of the past year. Before a powerful performance of her song “Til It Happens to You” at the Oscars last February, a song about surviving sexual assault, Lady Gaga tweeted a message to Kesha, saying in part, “This is not over we’ll stand by u until you are free to live a HAPPY life. Everyone deserves that.”

It’s only January. There will be further developments on this case as the year progresses and it’s bound to get uglier before it’s resolved.