Soon after announcing her new album Rainbows and releasing “Prayer,” her first solo single since 2013, Kesha has released a second single, “Woman.” And although this song also comes with a personal artist’s statement in which she calls the process of creating it with Drew Pearson and Stephen Wrabel “one of the best writing sessions of my life … because it reinforces how supportive men can be of women AND feminism,” ”Woman” is more of a dance jam than a heartfelt ballad.
Drawing from her self-proclaimed love of classic rock and soul and their raw, live instrumentation, Kesha enlisted the Dap-Kings, the band behind late soul sensation Sharon Jones, to add some “special sauce” to the song, including a rousing horn part that gives the song a joyful flair. Anchored by a catchy chant of “I’m a motherfucking woman” and a Lady Gaga-esque spoken word bridge, ”Woman” is an empowered return to the party anthems that made Kesha famous.
The song comes accompanied by a country-western-meets-Tarantino video directed by Kesha and her half brother; you can watch that below, followed by the conclusion of Kesha’s essay about the song as printed in Rolling Stone.
To me, the thing I’m most proud of is that the song and video never lost the pure joy from the day it was birthed. I really hope people enjoy this song because I had the best time making it. I hope that energy passes through people and the fun is infectious. It’s important for me that people know that there are a lot of emotions on my new album Rainbow – but the wild fun energy that first inspired me to perform has not, and will never, go away. I’m still a motherfuckerrr.