Kesha Releases Official 'Backstabber' Music Video After Long Wait
Kesha has released the official music video for "Backstabber," a song from her 2010 album Animal. The clip was scheduled to premiere at 1 p.m. Eastern time on 26 October 2026, after she announced it the day before.
The video was directed by Syndrome. Rolling Stone describes its story as a drive: Kesha steers a gold Trans Am, or Firebird, while an unfaithful friend steals her car.
The wait has been long. In a post on Facebook on 25 October, Kesha wrote that the official video was finally coming "after 16 years." Rolling Stone says the video had been in limbo for nearly two decades. Along the way, an unfinished, leaked cut surfaced online but never received a proper release. Kesha said on X that she had been trying to get the video out "this whole time."
The song has its own history. Around 2008, "Backstabber" was made available only on MySpace, the social network that was then a major home for new music. It came before Kesha's 2009 debut single, "Tik Tok." In recent years, the song has also surged on TikTok, the short-video app, where new listeners have found it.
The official video is now on Kesha's YouTube channel, where anyone can watch it here. A separate official audio version of the song is also posted on the channel.
For fans who have followed the song through its many lives online, the release closes a long chapter. For everyone else, it is a reminder that a music video can sit finished but unseen for years before it reaches a screen.
