With over a decade of pop stardom under her belt, Kesha has reached the point in her career where she can build an entire world around herself—and thank God for that, because it’s a beautiful one.

It’s not to say that she’s totally removed from the rest of the industry. Of course, the singer-songwriter and performer collaborates with the best of the best, makes her way onto Billboard charts, and remains a fixture within the pop culture zeitgeist. The difference is that she no longer seems interested in playing by anyone else’s rules. Instead, she’s created a universe governed by radical self-love, queer community, and the simple belief that joy itself might be something worth fighting for.

That much becomes obvious within minutes of speaking to her. The Kesha of 2026 still possesses all the things that made her a pop phenomenon—the irreverence, the humor, the ability to turn a single sentence into a rallying cry—but the frantic need to prove herself (something most of us carry through our twenties and thirties) seems to have dissolved entirely. She is just as keen on enjoying the simple pleasures of life—trees, for example—as she is performing for tens of thousands of people on stage. It would seem that, finally, Kesha has found balance in a life that most of us can scarcely imagine.

V spoke with the Pop fixture about finding the love of her life—her fans—and kicking off her Freedom Tour, now underway.

Mathias Rosenzweig: I feel lucky to be speaking with you right at the start of the new tour, with shows already under your belt. What were those first couple of shows like?

Kesha: I just feel so lucky. I feel really grateful to be at a stage in my life and in my career where I get to go on stage, I get to create art, I get to design a sonic landscape, and all of my fans are just here for it. I feel like we have this really beautiful, loving relationship. Once you are inside the walls of the venue, it almost feels like we’re in a secret club together — we are totally safe, we’re totally loved, we can be our total authentic, fully feral selves, and for the next two hours we just get to have full-blown escapism at its finest.

MR:  That’s such a beautiful thing. Your fan base is such a community — and such a longstanding one at this point. 

K:  I really do feel like my animals are the love of my life. I think back to all the romantic relationships I’ve had, and none of them hold a candle to what I have when I hit the stage with my animals — that is just pure transcendent love, really unlike anything. It’s very hard to describe. And that’s why I feel so lucky, because I know that this is my last lifetime incarnated as a human. I feel like my version of my higher power was like, okay, you’ve lived many, many lives, and for your last one, we’re gonna just make it the most intense life a human could possibly lead. You’re gonna see some crazy shit. It’s gonna be barely tolerable, but you’re gonna be rewarded with a love — like this Goliath of a love that is gonna come at you like a tidal wave in the form of many beautiful people, and it’s gonna follow you throughout your whole life. I truly feel that. And so when I got to go on stage at the Forum and be in this bubble — it’s like a live organism; it’s its own living, breathing organism. Every single person there makes it a very special night that can’t be replicated, and I’m just in it. There’s never a time in my life I’m more present than I am on stage, and I get to celebrate my freedom, which is so beautiful, surrounded by so much love. I’m so lucky. That’s my job. That’s insane.

MR:  If it’s your last life, it’s a pretty extraordinary one. You know those old army commercials — ‘if you wrote a book about your life, would anyone read it?’ This lifetime? Absolutely they would.

K:  Oh my god, people are definitely gonna want to read my book. The craziest part is people don’t even know the half of it. If people only knew.

MR:  I’m sure. You’re a storyteller, and there’s clearly a lot more of the story to tell. It’s exciting that you’re doing this tour and putting out new music. I wanted to touch on the name — the Freedom Tour. There are obvious reasons for it, being an independent artist and everything you’ve gone through, but what does freedom mean to you in a larger sense?

K:  The name obviously started being based on my personal experience, but living my experience as a woman, especially in America, coming up at the time that I came up — there was just a lot of internalized anxiety and shame. If you’ve been a fan of mine or really just pop culture since the early 2000s to now, the world was not so kind — not only to me but just to women. I really love Britney Spears. One of my greatest experiences of my life is writing a song for Britney, and collaborating with Britney. I think about her experience with the media, and I think about my experience with the media, and how it feels like this feminine experience in the world where it’s nearly impossible, and you absorb a lot of people’s projections. If you’re too big, you’re too skinny, you’re too sexy, you’re not sexy enough, you’re too young, you’re too old — you’re just never okay. And I internalized that for myself. I can’t imagine I’m the only person in this country or in the world to have internalized this feeling of like, however I am, that’s not acceptable. 

I really internalized that I’m not lovable, I’m not worthy, I’m not acceptable the way I am. And I have set out, since I got the freedom and autonomy over my voice, on this path of thinking: what if I have freedom over all of these limiting beliefs about myself and internalized shame that other people put on me? What if I just really had freedom from all the judgment — that people have judged me, but also that I’ve judged myself? I started to examine all the ways I felt like I was abandoning myself because of past experiences, or things I’ve heard, or things I read on Twitter, or things I’ve overheard people say about me, or things I’ve made up in my mind that people are saying about me when I look ugly on a red carpet — just all of these experiences that shape us and make us who we are. I wanted freedom from the negativity. The freedom piece is about: what if we loved ourselves so fully and completely, exactly as we are, including everything we’ve gone through — then what would happen?

MR:  What you’re describing has an emotional trickle-down to fans. Pop stars are put on a pedestal, then torn apart in tabloids, and people watching absorb the message: if she’s not enough, how could I be? By saying, “That was a really fucked up time, and I’m not living by those standards anymore,” you’re giving everyone else permission to let go too. It’s a kind of contagious healing. I hope it feels like that at the shows.

K:  That gives me full body chills right now. I certainly don’t think I’m the youngest girl making music; I’m certainly not the thinnest, I’m not the most beautiful, I’m not the most talented, I’m not the best dancer — I’m none of the best of those things. But I fucking love myself so much, and I’m so proud of myself. And that really is the basis of the whole show. I do a ceremony at the top where I ask the audience: are you willing to love yourself and each other tonight? That’s really what it is — I don’t have to be the best, and I can still only and completely love myself. I think from that choice and revelation I’ve had over the past couple of years, I’m so much more of service to others, and I’m so much of a better person, family member, friend, and hopefully singer and performer. So much anxiety and judgment has just left the building. And I would love for my animals and my fans to join me in just radical love. As an experiment — we can always go back to judging ourselves and hating ourselves; we can go back into this shame spiral; it’s always there. But what if, as an experiment, we just fucking radically love ourselves?

MR:  You mentioned that sense of ceremony, and when we spoke last year you seemed to be leaning more into spirituality. I recently read an old Lady Gaga interview where she said performing for an arena felt like looking out at God. Now that you’re back on stage, does it feel like a spiritual experience for you too?

K:  I love that she said that. So well said. Do you know what the audience is for me? It makes me kind of emotional. It’s like pure love. I feel like people come to my shows dressed up like me. And I feel like you walk around the world, and I just feel so seen. I feel like when you’re lying in bed with someone you’re so in love with, and they look at you, and all they have for you is just pure radiating love — that’s the energy I have from the audience when I’m on stage. I feel like I’m being looked at through the eyes of my greatest lover. It’s spiritual. I just played two nights ago, and it makes me feel like the best version of myself. Getting to go on tour and play these shows really brought me back home to myself and to my power. Had I not had my fans show up for me, I don’t know where I would be post almost ten-year litigation. To have to get myself up and train and design outfits and design a set list and make peace with myself — that was all for my fans. It really is such a loving relationship. I do everything for the love of my life.

MR:  I’m so happy more people are realizing the love of your life doesn’t have to be a man you’re dating. People are wising up to that. The way you talk about your fans is exactly why I keep calling it a community — they have that love for each other too. 

K:  That’s all I ever wanted to do. When I was in high school, I went to prom with the only guy who was out in my whole high school. At the time, it was not cute — there were Confederate flags everywhere, a lot of hate speech happening at my high school. I would just hide and play the saxophone in the marching band room. Then I ended up going to prom with the only man who was brave enough to be out at this high school, which was iconic. I dressed up like Madonna, I had a lace glove on, and we just had the best time. I remember when I was getting ready for the prom, I was like — if I ever get to actually do this, and be a pop star, and travel the world, and do this for a living, I promise you that I’m gonna make a place for people like us, because we just so didn’t belong. So it makes me really happy to hear the feedback that it feels like a real community, because that’s always been my goal.

MR:  There are a lot of dates on that tour schedule. When you see the full list of everywhere you’re going, what’s your feeling?

K:  I’m so lucky, I’m so grateful, I’m so alive. I felt like I was slowly dying for so many years that I wake up every day so grateful. There’s not enough hours in the day.

MR:  That feels like a nice place to end. You’ve talked a lot about joy, and it seems like it’s become something you consciously prioritize. What’s bringing you the most joy right now?

K:  I love that question. This might be weird, but trees are really doing it for me right now. I have a redwood tree in my yard, and I also go and get mountain water — water directly from a mountain — and that brings me a lot of joy. I’m entering my full-blown hippie phase. I’ve been fighting it, because I don’t ever really want to wear long dresses — that’s not the kind of girl I think I am — but who knows what the future may hold.

MR:  Who knows what the next era holds. This isn’t really a question, but I’ve been reading about centenarians and these so-called blue zones where people regularly live past 100. The common thread is almost always simple things: spending time in nature, moving your body, having purpose. It’s almost what you’d tell a five-year-old: go outside. So it makes perfect sense that you’re finding joy in exactly that. Apparently it’s what we’re supposed to be doing.

K:  I realized in these two years since I’ve gotten my freedom and my independence that the greatest currency for me right now is nervous system regulation. For me that means sunlight, time in nature, music, meditation, good food — but the biggest thing is non-transactional unconditional love. That really boils down to the community. That’s why I love how much you pointed out the community I’m cultivating, because I think that is actually really integral to joy and living a long and happy life. You need to have people you want to live a long time for and with.

MR:  The science behind it is genuinely remarkable. I went in skeptical and came out a believer, so you’re doing the doctor’s work. It was so great to connect again. Congrats on the tour—it looks like you’re having the time of your life. I’m so happy for you.

K:  Oh my gosh, thank you. And you know what, one other thing that’s bringing me a lot of joy is my new wardrobe — it’s super cunty.

MR:  The right dress or the right set of shoes — that’ll add a couple years to your life, too.

K:  Ha — absolutely. One last thing: the final outfit I sing “Praying” in is actually inspired by the ceiling of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.It’s like the ceiling of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican had me in a full-blown spiritual awakening, because it was done by Michelangelo, who was a queer man, and he is, of course, designing the interior of the Vatican. The queerness in the Vatican had me so happy — the beauty of that queerness — and I wanted to represent that out in the world on my tour.

MR:  That’s extraordinary. And this is truly my last thing—it actually connects. I was talking to someone about Stendhal Syndrome, the idea that a person can be so overwhelmed by beauty that they physically can’t handle it. It was first identified in Florence, where people have literally fainted in front of masterpieces like Michelangelo’s David.

K:  Oh my God. I’ve experienced that. I’m actually so inspired. Thank you for sharing. My wheels are spinning now.

MR:  You have to look it up. It sounds like you’ve lived it yourself. It’s a physiological response to beauty. Remarkable.

K:  I love that. I hope that someone out there experiences that when they look at the last wardrobe change on my tour.

Kesha is currently on tour. You can buy tickets here.