"Raising Hell" is a song by American singer

Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. Her first major success came in 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round". Kesha's music and ima ...

featuring American rapper

Big Freedia Freddie Ross Jr. (born January 28, 1978), better known by her stage name Big Freedia ( ), is an American rapper, singer and performer known for her work in the New Orleans genre of hip hop called bounce music. Freedia has been credited with helpi ...

. It was released as the lead single from Kesha's fourth studio album '' High Road'' on October 24, 2019.

Background and promotion

On October 18, 2019, fans were prompted to call a hotline where the singer recorded a message to announce her return to music. On October 21, 2019, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' posted a video clip with the announcement of Kesha's upcoming album ''High Road''. Two days later, Kesha uploaded a trailer of the music video to her

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, revealing the release date to be October 24. The song was remixed for club and mix show radio play by Pink Panda, Justin Caruso, Steve James, The Wild, Dirty Werk, Robert Eibach and Danny Morris. It peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart on February 14, 2020.

Composition

"Raising Hell" fuses

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

, EDM and bounce into a "

Pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

-esque" composition. It has been compared to the single "

Timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

", which Kesha was featured on. Described as combining the musical styles of Kesha's first two studio albums and her third, ''

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

'', it features beat drops accompanied by "soaring synth beats", gospel choirs, handclaps, a church organ, horns, and a post-chorus by Freedia.

Critical reception

“Raising Hell” was met with positive reviews from critics, with many deeming it a triumphant return for the pop star. Gil Kaufman, writing for ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'', called the song "an all-time keeper". Lars Gotrich of ''

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

'' wrote the song "sounds like dollar sign-era Ke$ha with some of the hard-won hindsight from 2017's optimistic, healing ''

''". Jael Goldfine of ''

Paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

'' called the song "a wonderful midpoint between snarling party girl Kesha half-rapping over crunchy pop-EDM and her soulful balladry on ''Rainbow''".

Music video

The music video for "Raising Hell" was directed by Luke Gilford. The video portrays Kesha as a televangelist, loved by the people who she preaches to, but is married to an abusive husband. One night, Kesha tries to seduce her drunk husband but is almost choked to death until he is stabbed in the head. Kesha then drags the dead body to the trunk of her car, dyes her hair dark brown, and flees to a motel out of town. She is then wanted for murder and is chased by the police until she is eventually caught and arrested for killing her husband.

Live performances

Kesha and Big Freedia performed the song for the first time on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...

'' on October 28, 2019. The duo performed the song at the 2019 American Music Awards, followed by a performance of "

Tik Tok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration from three seconds t ...

". At one point, her performance became the most tweeted that night.

Track listing

Digital download and streaming # "Raising Hell" (featuring Big Freedia) Digital download and streaming (Justin Caruso remix) # "Raising Hell" (Justin Caruso remix; featuring Big Freedia) Digital download and streaming (Pink Panda remix) # "Raising Hell" (Pink Panda remix; featuring Big Freedia) Digital download and streaming ( Steve James remix) # "Raising Hell" (Steve James remix) Digital download and streaming (The Wild remix) # "Raising Hell" (The Wild remix)

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2019 singles 2019 songs American pop rock songs Kesha songs Songs written by Kesha Songs written by Wrabel Songs written by Sean Douglas (songwriter) Songs written by Ajay Bhattacharya RCA Records singles Big Freedia songs Bounce music songs