Kesha Updates 'Tik Tok' Lyric to 'F--- P. Diddy' During Surprise Coachella Performance with Reneé Rapp

Sunday was the final day of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival's first weekend, and as the main stage kicked into high gear with a high-energy 5 p.m. set by Reneé Rapp, the actress/pop sensation brought out a surprise guest, whom she excitedly introduced as "the hottest person on the Earth": the party animal and hip-pop warrior herself, Kesha.

And as the two rousingly dueted on "Tik Tok," the breakthrough single from Kesha's 2010 debut album Animal, there was one very notable and eyebrow-raising update to the lyrics.

Fans of aughts pop will no doubt recall that the original opening line to Kesha's party anthem (which — side note — came out long before the social media platform of the same name) as: "Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy." But on Sunday, Kesha (proudly claiming her status as a pop elder stateswoman in her "I Am Mother" tank top) and Rapp gleefully shouted: "Wake up in the morning feeling, like, 'F--- P. Diddy!'" The pop disruptors punctuated their unison F-bomb with defiant middle-finger gestures, as the Indio audience roared and the moment, presumably, went viral on TikTok.

This wasn't just some off-color joke playing on recent headlines about Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, who has been accused of sex trafficking, sexual assault, and physical abuse and whose homes were raided as part of a federal sex-trafficking investigation last month. This was clearly personal... because a decade ago, Kesha accused another music mogul of similarly egregious wrongdoing.

In 2014, Kesha, whose full name is Kesha Rose Sebert, sued her former producer and label boss, Dr. Luke (real name: Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald), for infliction of emotional distress, sex-based hate crimes, and employment discrimination. Gottwald steadfastly denied Kesha's allegations of long-term sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, and he countersued Sebert for defamation. Their protracted legal battle prevented Kesha from releasing new music for several years. A judge dismissed Kesha's claims in 2016, and Gottwald's defamation lawsuit reached a "resolution," according to a joint statement released by both parties, in June 2023.

Kesha's most recent album was the tellingly titled Gag Order, released in May of last year. In January 2024, she teased that new music is "coming soon." Watch this space to find out if her new pal Rapp ends up on her next record's tracklisting.

Tags

Coachella, Kesha, P. diddy, Renee Rapp