Ke$ha Releases Statement Explaining 'Die Young' Objections

The Associated Press, Thursday, December 20, 2012, 11:30am (PST)

Billboard -- After Ke$ha issued a string of controversial Twitter posts on Tuesday night (Dec. 18) in which she declared that she had been "forced" to sing the titular lyrics of her hit single "Die Young," the pop starlet has posted a message on her official website in which she explains her earlier statements in full. The original tweets resulted from a number of radio stations pulling the lead single from Ke$ha's new album "Warrior" in the wake of last Friday's school shooting in Newtown, Conn. On Tuesday night, Ke$ha wrote of the phrase "die young," "I did NOT want to sing those lyrics and I was FORCED TO," but now acknowledges that her earlier phrasing was too extreme. "After such a tragic event I was feeling a lot of emotion and sadness when I said I was forced to sing some of the lyrics to Die Young," Ke$ha writes on her site. "Forced is not the right word. I did have some concerns about the phrase 'die young' in the chorus when we were writing the lyrics especially because so many of my fans are young and that's one reason why I wrote so many versions of this song. But the point of the song is the importance of living every day to the fullest and staying young at heart, and these are things I truly believe."

"Die Young" dipped from 3-4 on this week's Hot 100, due in part to a drop in airplay following the tragic deaths of 20 children and six adults in Newtown. Its 19% drop-off in airplay marks the greatest percentage plunge among the Top 40 titles on the Radio Songs chart. Ke$ha is credited as a songwriter on "Die Young," along with Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, Benny Blanco, Cirkut and fun.'s Nate Ruess. "Warrior" debuted at No. 6 on last week's Billboard 200 chart, starting with 86,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

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