Kesha’s Freedom Tour rang loud and proud at Dos Equis Pavilion

This summer belongs to Kesha.

On Friday night, main-pop-girly-turned-indie-champion Kesha returned to Dos Equis Pavilion for her Freedom Tour. Though this tour comes just a year after her Tits Out Tour, which she co-headlined with Scissor Scissors, it carries a long-awaited gift to both her fans, known as “Animals,” and to Kesha herself.

This time, Kesha was accompanied by support from London alt-pop artist MEEK, and Canadian dance-pop duo Chromeo, who shot to breakout success around the same time as she did. The latter’s inclusion felt like a subtle punctation to the overall theme of her career-spanning showcase on Friday.

Now on the other side of a decade-long legal battle with producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, — whom Kesha had accused of emotional distress, sex-based hate crimes and employment discrimination — Kesha was finally able to perform a good portion of her earliest hits.

It was only fitting that she opened with the song that started it all, “Tik Tok,” on what happened to be the song’s 17th birthday. She rose from the bottom of the stage, dressed in an angel costume, with wings forming the shape of a heart on her back. Before hopping into her career-making debut, she issued a directive to the audience: “Animals, we do not stand for abuse in this house. So put your middle fingers up. You know what to do.”

Fans who have been keeping up knew immediately to shout the re-worked opening lyric — “Wake up in the morning like ‘Fuck P. Diddy’ — a change she debuted during a 2024 Coachella performance alongside Reneé Rapp.

She continued, performing some of her cuts from “Warrior,” noting “I haven’t performed some of these songs in 13 years.” After singing the title track, though, she noted that due to legal reasons, a lot of the songs wouldn’t be performed in their original iterations. However, she did promise fans that she will be reproducing and cutting the tracks again. “Animals, will you help me take back my songs?” she asked the audience. 

While Kesha could’ve easily latched onto the nostalgia of her vast catalog, she kept the celebration going with songs from her most recent album, 2025’s “Period,” which marks her first-ever independent release. Among them was “Yippee-Ki-Yay,” which she shared was actually inspired by a visit to a Dallas strip club with T-Pain.

Another memorable performance was her latest single, the sex-charged “Origami,” during which she demonstrated some pretty next-level choreography. This slice of the setlist seemed like a showcase for the fact that, although she’s nearly 20 years into her career, Kesha’s star hasn’t faded. What’s more, it’s clear she’s still unlocking new levels to her prowess as a performer.

Speaking of timing, though, Kesha thanked fans for making her 2010 B-Side “C U Next Tuesday” go viral in the current timeline. She shared a hilarious anecdote about how she and Este Haim wrote the song “almost 20 years ago” after making out with a handsome stranger at a dive bar, whom she later found out had a girlfriend. She and Haim later tracked down the man’s home, where she peed on his porch.

Toward the end of the set, Kesha performed “Praying,” a 2017 ballad that came after a years-long hiatus following the lawsuit with Dr. Luke. With Kesha’s vocals stronger than ever, a fruitful chapter in her career continues.

Kesha dominated the pop charts in the 2010s with hits like “Tik Tok,” “Your Love Is My Drug,” and “We R Who We R,” — the latter of which closed the show — but now, free from the big label system and running her own imprint, Kesha Records, she is fully at home in her status as an indie success.

A lot has changed in both the music landscape and Kesha’s journey as an artist she first stepped onto the scene in delightful disarray, something the Freedom Tour doesn’t she away from. But as we were reminded last night, the party truly don’t start ’till she walks in.