It's a big day for birthdays in the music world, as Justin Bieber turns 16 today (more on that later) and current Billboard Hot 100 dominator Ke$ha. She turns 23 years old today, which is astounding considering all that she has managed to accomplish.
Her breakout single "Tik Tok" spent nine weeks at the top of the charts (only recently upended by Black Eyed Peas' "I'mma Be"), fighting back such upstart juggernauts as the "We Are the World" remake and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." Animal, the debut album that contains "Tik Tok" and also her latest single "Blah Blah Blah," has sold 375,000 copies and is one of the biggest success stories of 2010 so far.
But her success hasn't just come from Animal — in fact, you've been hearing Ke$ha longer than you might think. She has written hit songs for some massive stars (including Britney Spears' "Lace and Leather," Miley Cyrus' "The Time of Our Lives" and the Veronicas' "This Love," and that's her singing the hook on Flo Rida's chart-topping hit "Right Round." (She also makes a cameo in Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" video.)
By far the greatest Ke$ha story is from early in her career, when she desperately wanted Prince to produce her music. She told the New York Post that she broke onto the Purple One's property in Beverly Hills to try to give him her demo. "I know people who know people who knew Prince's home address," she said. "One day I paid the gardener to let me in after I was unable to sneak under the fence. I figured the side door being unlocked was an invitation to enter. I found him jamming in a room with his band. His assistant grilled me for a while, and then I dropped a demo I made for him wrapped in a purple bow on the floor and ran out of the house. I felt it was harmless at the time, but looking back it was pretty psychotic."
Prince never got back to her, but that's okay, because she ended up hooking up with Dr. Luke and knocking out "Tik Tok," a truly killer single.