Where’s the beef? Fans think it’s cooking between Kesha and Katy Perry, especially after the former posted an interestingly timed selfie with a plastic Wendy’s cup just hours after the fast-food chain penned a shady comment on X about the latter.
In the photo uploaded Monday night (April 14), the “Tik Tok” singer, wearing a pair of sunglasses, smiles innocuously while sipping on a Wendy’s cup with the logo clearly facing the camera. Forgoing a caption, Kesha let the picture speak for itself — and in turn, people online have interpreted it as the pop star throwing a subtle jab Perry’s way.
That’s because Wendy’s had earlier in the evening spoken negatively of the “Firework” singer, who was one of six passengers on Blue Origin’s all-women flight crew who landed safely back on earth after a brief trip to space Monday. Under a post announcing that Perry had returned from her expedition, the brand’s official account replied, “Can we send her back.”
In another X message, the fast-food chain shared a photo of the “Firework” singer planting a smooch on the earth after landing, captioning it with a nod to her lyrics, “I kissed the ground and i liked it.” When one X user quipped that Perry had only been in space for about 10 minutes, the brand shot back, “Don’t short change her it was 11 minutes.”
Billboard has reached out to reps for Kesha, Perry and Wendy’s for comment.
Though it remains unclear why Wendy’s might have an issue with the former American Idol judge, fans are sure that Kesha’s seemingly snarky selfie is all to do with the two women’s respective histories with Dr. Luke. In 2014, Kesha alleged that the Kemosabe Records founder drugged and raped her in 2005, after which he sued her for defamation while vehemently maintaining that her claims were “false and shocking.” Their ensuing legal battle continued for nine years before the two parties finally reached a settlement in 2023.
Before the settlement, however, Perry’s name was brought up in the lawsuit when Dr. Luke’s lawyers claimed that Kesha had at one point told Lady Gaga via private text messages that the producer had previously raped Perry. In a deposition dated July 2017 and released in August 2018, however, Perry denied that Dr. Luke ever assaulted her, leading Kesha’s team to issue a response saying that a major label CEO had been the one to share that allegation with Kesha and Gaga.
But despite Kesha’s allegations against Dr. Luke, Perry still made the controversial decision to work with him on her 2024 single “Woman’s World” — something she later defended on a September episode of Call Her Daddy. “He was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with,” she said of the producer, who worked on her older hits “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream.” “But the reality is, it comes from me. The truth is, I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis, and he was one of the people to help facilitate all that — one of the writers, one of the producers.”
Even so, countless people online are now cheering Kesha on for appearing to support the Wendy’s diss. “Kesha is HILARIOUS for this,” one person wrote of the situation on X, while another fan said, “KESHA IS SO SHADY LMAOOO.”
“I think Wendy’s was stupid to do this, but Kesha is absolutely justified in hating a person who continues to platform the man who raped her,” another person added.
Explained one X user to another who was confused by what the shade may be about, “Katy Perry worked with Dr Luke. Wendy’s trolled Katy yesterday so Kesha ran to post with Wendy’s.”
See Kesha’s Wendy’s selfie below.
