Pitbull and Kesha released their joint single ‘Timber’ in late 2013, which became one of the biggest hits of 2014 – their 10th – and of both their careers. ‘Timber’ reached number 1 on the official charts in more than fifteen countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, and today it has more than one and a half billion plays on Spotify. It is, in fact, the most listened to song of Pitbull and Kesha’s careers, above ‘Time of Our Lives’ and ‘Tik Tok’, respectively.
Ten years later, Kesha fans are not happy that Kesha’s name has mysteriously disappeared from the title of the ‘Timber’ video on YouTube (the information on Spotify and other platforms has not changed). Only Pitbull’s name now appears as the artist in the video, as if the song were his and no one else’s, despite the fact that ‘Timber’ is a very strong collaboration between him and Kesha. It’s not that Kesha just does backing vocals on ‘Timber’ like she did on Flo Rida’s ‘Round Round’ when she was unknown; it’s that she sings the entire chorus.
Pitbull, it seems, doesn’t know what happened either and has taken to social media to calm the waters of Kesha fans who have come out to defend the singer, pointing out that ‘Timber’ would not have been such a success without Kesha. In a message, Pitbull has implied that he has nothing to do with this matter: “Kesha and I have an incredible song together, nothing will change this. My team is looking into what happened.” Kesha, who has just released her single ‘Joyride’, has not commented.
Update August 20th: Kesha is credited again on YouTube for ‘Timber’, just one day after it was mysteriously removed.
