Animal (Kesha album)
Animal is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Kesha. The album was first released on January 1, 2010, by Sony Music, and was released in the United States on January 5, 2010, by RCA Records. Kesha worked on the album with a variety of record producers and songwriters such as Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, Benny Blanco, David Gamson, Greg Kurstin, Max Martin and others. Kesha had been recording demos for several years when one eventually ended up in the hands of Samantha Cox, senior director of writer/publisher relations at BMI. Cox passed along the demo and it ended up in the hands of Gottwald, who decided to have Kesha perform on the song "Right Round" with American rapper Flo Rida. Within two months, the song became a hit in multiple countries around the world. The event led to Kesha being sought after by many major labels, and she eventually signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records.
Musically, Animal draws from the electropop genre, while incorporating elements of dance-pop in its production and beats. Lyrically, the majority of the album's songs are based on Kesha's past life experiences of love, heartbreak, boys, and having a good time. The album received mixed reviews from music critics. Some appreciated its fun, carefree nature, while others dismissed it as juvenile and said that it seemed insincere. The album attained chart success, debuting at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, the Billboard 200 in the United States and the IFPI Greece Albums Chart, while charting within the top ten in seven other countries. Animal has since been certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over 4 million equivalent units in the United States.
Four singles were released from the album. Its lead single, "Tik Tok", was released on August 7, 2009, and was a worldwide hit, reaching number one in eleven countries. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and stayed at the top for nine consecutive weeks. The song sold 12.8 million digital copies worldwide in 2010, making it the best-selling single of the year; whereas 6.8 million of those downloads were sold in the United States alone, making it at the time the sixth best-selling song in digital history. The album's second, third and fourth singles all achieved similar success, reaching the top ten in multiple countries, including Australia, Canada and the United States. The album's commercial success led to its nomination for the Juno Award for Best International Album at the Juno Awards of 2011. On November 21, 2025, Kesha released a 15th Anniversary edition of Animal + Cannibal, including two previously unreleased tracks and bonus tracks.
Background
Kesha had been recording demos for a few years, when one of her demos ended up in the hands of Samantha Cox, senior director of writer/publisher relations at BMI. Cox, who had worked with Kesha before, passed along the demos to a friend at BMI, who passed it to the manager of Lukasz Gottwald, known as Dr. Luke. At the age of eighteen, Kesha signed to Dr. Luke's label, Kemosabe Records, and his publishing company, Prescription Songs. Luke was busy with other projects at the time, and Kesha ultimately wound up signed to David Sonenberg's management company, DAS. While at DAS she worked with several top writers and producers, but rarely worked with or even spoke to Luke. DAS searched for a label deal for Kesha despite her still being in a signed contract with Luke. Kara DioGuardi, an artists and repertoire representative for Warner, was also interested in signing Kesha but the deal never went through because of the outstanding contract with Luke. Shortly after, Kesha and DAS parted ways and Kesha wound up reunited with Luke.At the end of 2008, Luke was working on a track with Flo Rida called "Right Round" for his album R.O.O.T.S., and the two decided they needed a female hook. Luke decided to have Kesha perform on the song and within two months, it was a number one hit in multiple countries around the world. The event led to Kesha being sought after by many major labels, and she eventually signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records. Kesha explained that she chose to sign with the company due to how well she got along with RCA A&R executive Rani Hancock, explaining that "Rani doesn't ever try to censor me, and I like being surrounded by strong, intelligent women."
Development and inspiration
Kesha had been working on Animal for seven years prior to its release, and had written over 200 songs for the album. The abundance of material extended it from its initially planned twelve tracks to fourteen. Kesha felt that the album had an empowering, carefree message for young women. "For girls, I think it's an empowering record, it's funny, it's cheeky," she said. "I think people need to have fun with whatever they're doing—makeup, their clothes, music, live shows—anything you don't need to take too seriously, don't take too seriously." When asked how the album related to her life, Kesha explained that the album was completely autobiographical. "I just write about what I live—literally, I think there's a great pop song in anything and everything, any situation." She cites her songs "Stephen" and "Dinosaur" as examples of this. She explained: "it's about this guy I've been stalking since I was 15. I wrote the song when I was 16 with my mom, and I was like, "This song's so dope, I know it is". "Dinosaur" came "about this old guy who was hitting on me, and his toupee was kind of falling off, and I was like, "Oh my God, you're so old, you're prehistoric, you're like a dinosaur. D-I-N-O-S-A-you are a dinosaur." Explaining the reasoning behind the title track being placed at the end of the album's track list, Kesha said:Music and lyrics
Musically, Animal has been described as electropop and dance-pop, while incorporating elements of electro in its production and beats. Kesha's vocals uses Auto-Tune and vocoders to alter her voice and includes samples. David Jeffries of AllMusic noted that the album lyrically revolves around avoiding reality with a preference for a "garbage chic" life, with lyrics such as "Maybe I need some rehab, or maybe just need some sleep" from the opening song "Your Love Is My Drug". Lyrically, the majority of the album's songs are based on Kesha's past life experiences of love, heartbreak, boys, and having a good time. "Your Love Is My Drug" is a dance song that is layered with a heavy electronic backdrop. Her vocals throughout the song have been described as a shouty sing-speak style. Musically, the song uses a simple, upbeat lyric line. On "Tik Tok" Kesha uses a spoken word rap style on the verses while the chorus is sung. According to her the lyrics are representative of herself, stating "it's about my life, it's 100 per cent me". "Take It Off" has been described as "a heavily Auto-Tuned reworking" of "There's a Place in France"."Kiss n Tells lyrics depict a tale of the slutty' ex of spreading his wild oats around the town". The writing of the song came about after Kesha discovered that her boyfriend was cheating on her with a famous pop starlet. "Kiss n Tell" is a dance-pop track that features standard elements of "party pop" music that is prominent on Animal. According to sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, "Kiss n Tell" is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderate beat rate of 144 beats per minute. The song is written in the key of E Major and Kesha's vocal range in the song spans from the note of G3 to the note of B4. "Stephen" is opened in "Kansas-style vocal harmonies" as Kesha sings about an unattainable lover depicting their story. "Blah Blah Blah" combines heavy use of Auto-Tune with drum machines while infusing hints of R&B. Lyrically, "Blah Blah Blah" depicts a woman who would rather have sex than listen to a man speak. "Dinosaur" features a whistle-synth infused backing while the lyrics describe the story of older men hitting on younger girls. "Party at a Rich Dude's House" is reminiscent of music from the 1980s which according to Jeffries could have appeared on the soundtrack to the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" is an upbeat pop-rock ballad; one of a small minority of tracks to incorporate guitars in the instrumental, as Kesha tried to exclude the style from the album. "Boots & Boys" is a "lusty" song reminiscent of INXS's "Suicide Blonde", but from a female point of view.
Release and promotion
RCA noticed Kesha's strong following on social media when negotiating her contract and thus relied on viral marketing to build a following for her debut single, "Tik Tok" offering it for free a month before releasing it for digital download. "Tik Tok" was released for digital download in August 2009 and reached number one on iTunes in New Zealand without radio airplay. Radio stations soon began expressing interest in the song, but RCA/Jive Label Group chairman/CEO Barry Weiss decided to delay its shipping to radio by a month, to October, to let the song continue to build viral support digitally and good word of mouth. While "Tik Toks airplay was not stellar right out of the gates, it soon gained enough momentum to give RCA the go ahead to release Animal in January 2010. Finance executives had pushed for a Christmas release to capitalize on the usual strong sales during that time period, but Weiss thought that the album would be lost in the shuffle among the many other releases released at that time. Animal was released in Denmark, Italy and Philippines on New Year, January 1, 2010. It was released in North America and Spain four days later.To promote the album, Kesha did several performances worldwide. Her first performance was on MTV Push, a program broadcast on MTV Networks worldwide. She made several television appearances across North America to promote the album: It's on with Alexa Chung, The Wendy Williams Show, Lopez Tonight, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "Blah Blah Blah" was performed on January 18, 2010, at MuchOnDemand. While in the United Kingdom, Kesha made two appearances on television to promote the album and "Blah Blah Blah". The first was on February 18, 2010, on Alan Carr: Chatty Man. It was followed by a performance on breakfast television show GMTV, on February 19. The song was also performed live on season 9 of American Idol on March 17, 2010. She wore her trademark glitter eye make-up and bounced throughout the stage while her backup dancers were dressed as human TV sets showing intermittent images of the American flag, owls, and skulls. The performance was accompanied by 3OH!3.
Kesha performed "Your Love Is My Drug" and "Tik Tok" on a season 35 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Ryan Phillippe on April 17, 2010. On May 29, 2010, Kesha performed "Your Love Is My Drug" alongside her previous single "Tik Tok" at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan. She performed a set for BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. On August 13, 2010, Kesha performed "Take It Off" alongside earlier singles "Your Love Is My Drug" and "Tik Tok" on NBC's Today. In the performance she was seen wearing boots, fishnets, glitter shorts and a loose tank top. By the second verse, her dancers – dressed head to toe in black – started to appropriately undress to the music as the chorus starts revealing gold shirts and tank-tops. The performance featured smoke machines with Kesha playing notes on an electric keyboard while crawling on the floor. Her performance of "Backstabber" for the Bud Light Hotel Super Bowl event on February 5, 2011, was broadcast on February 9 on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''