Kesha has censored a lyric mentioning serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in a recent performance after copping backlash.
Following the release of the controversial Netflix series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, the singer-songwriter was called out by fans for her 2010 song 'Cannibal'.
The original song contained the lyrics ‘be too sweet and you'll be a goner. Yeah, I'll pull a Jeffrey Dahmer’.
She's clearly listened to the social media criticism and left out the controversial lyric at Hulu's Huluween Dragstravaganza.
But the change in song left viewers divided as one person wrote: “Not them cutting Jeffrey from the song like it makes it less triggering lol.”
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Another said: “She’s so real for taking that part out of the song.”
A third person shared: “Oh please just don’t sing the song then if you’re going to censor.”
While another wrote: “No way they made her censor the Dahmer line.”
However, Kesha’s mother, Pebe Seber, who co-wrote the song with her daughter, recently posted a video on TikTok explaining the lyrics.
She noted the pop anthem uses cannibalism to symbolise Kesha's man-eater tendencies.
In the video, she said: “At the time, Kesha and the other writer were too young to even know who Jeffrey Dahmer was.
“Literally the way it happened was I have this rhyming program called MasterWriter for songwriters. We were looking for a rhyme for ‘goner.’ At the very end of the widest rhymes was ‘Jeffrey Dahmer.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s the perfect lyric.”
She continued: “At the time, it was a song that we were writing about Kesha. Kesha was not the most popular girl in high school. She ended up not even getting asked to the prom.
“Later on, when she got famous, all these guys that, you know, never paid any attention to her were coming around and like, ‘Remember me? Remember me?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, now that I’m famous you’re up my anus.’ It was a tongue-in-cheek, funny song. It was not actually about cannibalism. It was just a title.”
Kesha wasn't the only artist to be called out for mentioning Dahmer in one of their songs.
Katy Perry also had a section of her 2013 track 'Dark Horse', where collaborator Juicy J spoke about the infamous serial killer.
He said in the nine-year-old song: "She's a beast/ I call her Karma/ She eats your heart like Jeffrey Dahmer."
Perry was called 'disrespectful' by viewers who had recently seen the Netflix series about Dahmer.
Many said the killer shouldn't be referred to in pop culture as it can be triggering to victims' families.
Charisa Bossinakis