After an almost five-year hiatus due to a complicated legal battle with her former executive producer, Dr. Luke, pop singer/songwriter Kesha Rose Sebert is finally releasing new music again. Her third studio album, Rainbow, was released this past August and debuted as number one on the Billboard 200 charts (billboard.com). The record received critical acclaim from music experts and was given an excellent mean score of 8.1 on Metacritic (metacritic.com). On Sept. 26, Kesha began touring to promote Rainbow and is expected to perform 24 North American shows and nine European shows across two legs (keshaofficial.com).

The Rainbow Tour stopped at the Manhattan Center in New York City for its ninth show on Mon, Oct. 9. The long line for this sold-out show went around the block. The Black Lips, an Atlanta-based garage band, served as Kesha’s opening act and played a handful of songs from their discography, including songs from their 2017 LP, Satan’s Graffiti or God’s Art?

At approximately 8:40 pm, the ballroom lights went out and the stage lights began flashing purple, red, then white. An ominous voice-over could be heard from the speakers with Kesha saying, “Baby, I love you so much. Don’t make me kill you,” which is the bridge from the ninth track, “Hunt You Down,” of Rainbo

w. Then, she recited the sing-songy bridge from the album’s first track, “Bastards.” The cheering crowd roared from all corners of the Hammerstein Ballroom in anticipation of the night’s main event. Finally, Kesha appeared in a black pantsuit with near-waist length platinum blonde hair, strutting down center stage and throwing her hands in the air, exclaiming: “We…did it!” This felt representative and poetic, as this was Kesha’s first concert in New York City following her newly acquired freedom to record music without Dr. Luke.

The first song of the night was “Woman,” the album’s third track and first promotional single. Kesha sang while the band, the Dap Kings, played their horns in front of a rainbow-colored backdrop with two dangling star ornaments above them. This empowering feminist anthem amplifies a woman’s ability to be successful without a man in her life, and, more personally, Kesha’s ability to succeed as an artist without Dr. Luke producing her music anymore. Much of the song’s lyrics are fun, crude, and totally on-brand for the old-school Ke$ha of “Sleazy” and “Die Young”-fame, but lyrics such as “Don’t buy me a drink, I make my money. / Don’t touch my weave, don’t call me honey,” and “I’m a…woman, baby, alright. / I don’t need a man to be holding me too tight” call for serious social reform and equality between the sexes. Men and women alike in the audience sang along to this catchy tune (as well as to almost every other song that was played that night).

Up next was “Boogie Feet,” the tenth track of Rainbow. “Boogie Feet” is another light-hearted song where listeners can just let loose and have a good time. Kesha and her two male background dancers grooved across the stage and encouraged the crowd to get out of their seats and dance, in the unlikely scenario that they had not been doing so already. As Kesha sings in the second verse, “The body needs a good shakin’ / to let the brain fill up with the good vibrations.”

Following “Boogie Feet” was “Learn to Let Go,” the album’s sixth track and second promotional single. The background dancers reenacted the choreography from the “Learn to Let Go” music video while Kesha sang some of her most powerful lyrics ever recorded. In the chorus, Kesha sings, “I think it’s time to practice what I preach / exorcise the demons inside me / whoa, gotta learn to let it go.” The theme of this song is to learn from one’s mistakes, not be haunted by the past, and, obviously, learn to let go.

After “Learn to Let Go”, Kesha performed the album’s fourth track and third promotional single, “Hymn for the Hymnless.” “Hymn” is dedicated to people who feel as if they do not fit into societal norms. In an interview with the website Mic, Kesha revealed, “Religion, for me, in this song doesn’t mean necessarily religion as in your spiritual belief, but more like kids with no set way of life” (mic.com). Some notable lyrics of this touching song are “I know that I’m perfect, even though I’m [messed] up,” which is about embracing the things that make one different, and “after all we’ve been through, we won’t stand and salute,” which references Kesha’s political views and defiance of President Trump. At the end of “Hymn,” Kesha played an impressive and unexpected bass solo that is not featured in the album’s version of the song.

Kesha introduced the next song (the second track of the album) as a song that’s “about those…who won’t stop talking…about you: ‘Let ‘Em Talk’.’” The rock-and-roll instrumental along with Kesha’s several pelvic thrusts after the bridge really sold the unapologetic and free-spirited energy of the number. “Don’t let those losers take your magic, baby!” Kesha belts in the pre-chorus.

After performing five new songs, Kesha returned to her roots and played some of her classics. First up was “Take It Off,” the third track from her first LP, Animal. As the band began playing the song, Kesha threw her blazer off to the side of the stage and unbuttoned her shirt while prancing around the stage. “Do you remember this…song?” Kesha asked, while the audience cheered and clapped along to the beat. Although the original 2010 song has a more electronic instrumental, Kesha and her band gave it a refreshing rock-and-roll twist that made it a crowd-favorite. Midway through the song, Kesha announced a guitar battle between two of her band’s guitarists, similar to her performance at the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Festival. After the fans declared a winner, Kesha sang the rest of “Take It Off” and “We R Who We R,” another high-energy dance song and the second track from her first EP, Cannibal.

At the end of “We R Who We R,” Kesha left the stage for her first costume change. During her absence, the melancholy outro to “Spaceship,” the last track on Rainbow, played overhead. Kesha then returned in an angelic white, knee-length dress with long sleeves, white feathers at the ends, and a white cowgirl hat. Upon her arrival, the crowd cheered and she performed a medley of the rest of “Spaceship,” “Hunt You Down,” and even her 2013 feature with American rapper Pitbull, “Timber.” Kesha is originally from Nashville, Tennessee, and her country roots were apparent while she sang these three songs. Kesha then performed “Godzilla,” the album’s thirteenth track and the only track on the album not written by her. This whimsical song was written by Kesha’s mother, Patricia “Pebe” Sebert, who was actually present at the venue. Sebert has been writing songs for artists such as Dolly Parton long before Kesha was born. Kesha and Sebert held each other and swayed back and forth while Kesha sang the song and audience members swayed their arms in the air.

Kesha continued the concert by returning to her earlier party anthems once again: “Your Love is My Drug” from Animal and “Blow” from Cannibal. One of the background dancers threw generous amounts of glitter, signature of a Kesha concert, into the crowd throughout the performance of the former. During the latter, he handed Kesha a glowing confetti cannon that was used after the first line of the chorus. “This place’s about to blow!” Kesha sang as she shot oodles of confetti into the crowd of people dancing in the pit.

The last song of the night—at least, before the “secret” encore performance (Kesha gave the disclaimer that she’s a bad liar and that this wasn’t really the last song)—was “Praying,” the fifth track on Rainbow and her comeback single. Her dancers draped an ornamental cape around her as the pianist began playing this emotional number. Considering Kesha’s past experiences with depression, bulimia, and verbal, financial, and sexual abuse, the live performance of “Praying” beautifully demonstrated all of her strength, resilience, and selflessness. In the pre-chorus, Kesha sings, “You brought the flames and you put me through hell / I had to learn how to fight for myself / and we both know all the truth I could tell / I’ll just say this as I wish you farewell” and in the chorus, “I hope you’re somewhere praying / I hope your soul is changing / I hope you find your peace / Falling on your knees, praying.”

Kesha and her band then left the stage to give the illusion that the concert was over, but in reality, she was just changing her costume again. The packed audience chanted her name over and over again for the encore performance for several minutes. Eventually, Kesha came back on stage in a black biker jacket, a ripped navy t-shirt, and a pair of light wash denim shorts. The encore performance featured three final songs: “Rainbow,” the album’s eighth track, “TiK ToK,” Kesha’s first #1 hit from Animal, and last but not least, “Bastards.” “Rainbow” was originally written as a letter of hope to herself while she was in a rehab facility for an eating disorder, and she loved it so much she decided to name her album after it. “You’ll find a rainbow, rainbow, baby / trust me, I know life is scary / but just put those colors on, girl / come and play along with me tonight,” Kesha sings in the heartwarming chorus. Next was “TiK ToK,” which Kesha announced by truthfully saying, “Now I know that every one of you in the audience knows every single word to this song!” “Tik ToK” may not be as meaningful as some of her other songs, but it is inarguably one of the most iconic pop songs of the early 2010s. The concert came to a close at the end of “Bastards” with even more confetti launched into the air and all the performers grabbing hands and taking a bow. Kesha is finally back into the limelight, and the audience’s energy of this sold-out show proved that she was greatly missed.