Dr. Luke will allow Kesha’s voice to be heard at the Billboard Music Awards

Dr. Luke is allowing Kesha to perform on Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards, days after originally rescinding approval.

Luke’s label, Kemosabe Records, to which Kesha remains signed, sent out a statement Thursday saying the performance is being approved after the singer — who is accusing Luke of sexual, physical and mental abuse — offered reassurance that her appearance wouldn’t allude to their ongoing legal battle.

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“Kesha’s performance on the Billboard Music Awards was always approved, in good faith. Approval was only suspended when Kemosabe learned Kesha was to use the performance as a platform to discuss the litigation,” the statement read. “Now that Kemosabe has obtained assurances, that it is relying upon, from Kesha, her representatives and Dick Clark Productions that neither Kesha nor her supporters will use the performance as such a platform, the approval has been restored.”

The kerfuffle began Tuesday after Dick Clark Productions, which puts on the awards spectacle, announced that the pop star had to pull out of the previously announced performance, noting Kemosabe pulled the plug on her appearance following a media report from a week ago that claimed the singer had planned on using her appearance to blast Luke.

However, Kesha said she never intended on addressing her ongoing case at Billboard, instead she planned on honoring Bob Dylan with a performance of “It Ain’t Me, Babe.”

“I just wanted to make very clear that this performance was about me honoring one of my favorite songwriters of all time and has never had anything at all to do with Dr. Luke,” she told fans. “I was never going to use a picture of him, speak of him or allude to my legal situation in any way.”

A representative for Kesha told The Times that the singer put it in writing that neither her performance nor any interview on the red carpet would allude to the case, but “Luke still wouldn’t budge.”

After news of the nixed performance hit, fans of the singer planned on boycotting the awards, with supporters of the #FreeKesha movement criticizing the producer and his legal counsel — who earlier this year asserted that “Kesha is already ‘free’ to record and release music without working with Dr. Luke as a producer if she doesn’t want to. Any claim that she isn’t ‘free’ is a myth.”

Lady Gaga blasted the decision in a tweet, without calling out Luke by name: “Isn’t it strange that it’s legal to own a woman this way? Listen Ursula, we want her voice back,” she wrote on Wednesday.

Before the performance was reinstated Kesha performed her Dylan cover alongside Ben Folds -- who will accompany her on the piano on Sunday’s show -- at Folds’ concert in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. The pair also did a medley that included her own song “Sleazy.”

“We are pleased that Kesha and Kemosabe Records have reached an agreement and very much look forward to having Kesha perform on the Billboard Music Awards this Sunday night on ABC,” Dick Clark Productions wrote in a statement on Thursday.

Kesha reacted to the news with a short post to her fans, posting a photo with the words “You and I are more than freinds. We’re like a really small gang.”

“Good work animals,” she wrote. “Looks like our voices can be heard after all.”

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gerrick.kennedy@latimes.com

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