We R Who We R — Kesha

“We R Who We R” is a party song with a reason behind it. Kesha wrote it in 2010 after reading about suicides among bullied gay teenagers, and hoped it would become a Pride anthem. It went straight to No. 1 in the US and, three months later, in the UK.

Why Kesha wrote it

In 2010 a rise in suicides among gay teenagers, linked to bullying, made the news in the US. Kesha wrote “We R Who We R” in response, with the aim of giving the LGBT community an anthem for Pride. The link stayed: in 2011 she worked with the Human Rights Campaign on a T-shirt named after the song for National Coming Out Day.

Studio and sound

The song was recorded in 2010 at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles. The credits list five writers — Kesha, Joshua “Ammo” Coleman, Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, Jacob Kasher Hindlin and Benjamin “Benny Blanco” Levin — and three producers: Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco and Ammo. It is a dance-pop track with EDM, techno and electropop elements, running at 120 BPM in C minor over a four-chord loop. For the bridge, the producers reused one vocal phrase from the second verse again and again. Critics compared its structure with her debut single, “Tik Tok”.

Straight in at No. 1

RCA released it on 22 October 2010 as the lead single of Cannibal. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, only the 17th song in the chart’s history to do so, and became Kesha’s second US No. 1. In the UK it first appeared at No. 95 in January 2011, then jumped to No. 1 after its release there on 23 January: her first UK No. 1 as a lead artist. It spent three weeks at the top in Australia and reached No. 2 in Canada, No. 4 in New Zealand and No. 5 in Japan. The RIAA has certified it 6× Platinum.

Hype Williams’ underground party

Hype Williams directed the video over 48 hours in downtown Los Angeles, including the 2nd Street Tunnel. It is staged as an underground party and was uploaded to Vevo on 1 December 2010. Kesha first performed the song on The X Factor Australia on 14 November 2010, and a week later at the American Music Awards.

Reviews were split. Digital Spy’s Robert Copsey gave it five stars; The New York Times’ David Browne criticised the heavily processed vocals. Rolling Stone gave it two and a half stars, then placed it No. 50 among the best singles of 2010.

In the mix

At 120 BPM, it sits at house tempo, which makes it easy to blend with club records of the same era. The same season of dance-pop produced David Guetta and Sia’s “Titanium” and the run of hits that turned Calvin Harris into a pop producer.