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Keshapedia
Layer 24 copy This article is about the song. You may be looking for the album.

"Rainbow" is a song performed by Kesha. It serves as the eighth track on Kesha's third album Rainbow.

Background[]

The song was first mentioned in an interview with The New York Times.

While she was in rehab, Kesha wrote a song called "Rainbow" on her tiny toy keyboard. Her mother had always told her that you could tell that a song was great if it could be sung against just one note and still sound good. As she sat singing it against one note, on the floor of the rehab facility, she knew she had something. She imagined "Rainbow" like a great orchestral production, something that Brian Wilson would have done on "Pet Sounds." She wanted this song to be produced by Ben Folds, who just happened to have friends who could play cellos and violas and kettle drums and the oboe and the flute and the French horn. He called in all his favors, and they rented out the big room at Capitol Records and tried to do the song fast and cheap. He wanted her to stand where Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra had stood, to understand her importance in the line of musicians that people remember.

He had her play with the bridge a little, sending ideas into his voice mail over a couple of days until they got it exactly right for recording. The process was revelatory for her. "He just really helped pull out of me exactly what I wanted to be, but I've always kind of been scared to try," she recalls. "And he's like: 'Try to sing that high C. Try to go higher. Try to do this weird thing with your voice.' Instead of getting shamed, it was like I was being encouraged and validated, and it was so magical and so beautiful." Folds produced the final version using just two takes.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, interviewer

[1]

In her interview with Metro, Kesha described the song as a promise to herself that things would get better.[2]

Music video[]

Music video Information
Kesha_-_Rainbow_(Official_Video) Released August 11, 2017
Length 4:17
Director Lagan Sebert
Producer
Filmed
Location Hollywood, California
Vevo views 13 milion

The music video is of a recording session Kesha did for the song with Ben Folds on the piano. They rented out the biggest recording studio at Capitol Studios in L.A. and brought in an orchestra.[3]

Lyrics[]

I used to live in the darkness
Dress in black, act so heartless
But now I see that colors are everything
Got kaleidoscopes in my hairdo
Got back the stars in my eyes, too
Yeah, now I see the magic inside of me

Yeah, maybe my head's fucked up
But I'm falling right back in love with being alive
Dreaming in light, light, lights
This kitty cat lost her mind
Been lookin' for a star-sent sign that I'll be alright
Look to the skies

I found a rainbow, rainbow, baby
Trust me, I know life is scary
But just put those colors on, girl
Come and play along with me tonight

I'd forgot how to daydream
So consumed with the wrong things
But in the dark, I realized this life is short
And deep down, I'm still a child
Playful eyes, wide and wild
I can't lose hope, what's left of my heart's still made of gold

And I know that I'm still fucked up
But aren't we all, my love?
Darling, our scars make us who we are, are
So when the winds are howling strong
And you think you can't go on, hold tight, sweetheart

You'll find a rainbow, rainbow, baby
Trust me, I know life is scary
But just put those colors on, girl
Come and play along with me tonight
You gotta learn to let go, put the past behind you
Trust me, I know the ghosts will try to find you
But just put those colors on, girl
Come and paint the world with me tonight, night-night
Night, night, night

Ooh, ooh-ah, ah, ah
Ooh, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

I found a rainbow, rainbow, baby
Trust me, I know life is scary
But just put those colors on, girl
You gotta learn to let go, put the past behind you
Trust me, I know, the ghosts will try to find you
But just put those colors on, girl
Come and paint the world with me tonight

Oh, put those colors on, girl
Come and paint the world with me tonight
Ooh, ah, ah
Come and paint the world with me tonight

Videos[]

Credits[]

Produced by Ben Folds
Arranged by Ben Folds & Rob Moose
Piano, Celeste, Timpani, Electric Bass & Percussion by Ben Folds
Violin by Rob Moose
Viola by Nadia Sirota
Percussion by Theo Katzman
French Horn by Katie Faraudo
Celli by Ira Glansbeek & Gabriel Cabezas
Oboe by Lara Wickes
Bass Harmonica by Ross Garren
Flute by Alex Sopp
Additional Vocals by Kentron Chen, Ben Bram, Ryan Lerman & Danielle Withers
Choir Faithful Central Bible Church Choir
Engineered by Dave Way at Capitol Records Studios, Hollywood, CA & Waystation Studio
Assisted at Capitol by Charlie Paakkari
Engineered by Joe Costa at Southern Ground, Nashville, TN; House of Blues Studios Nashville, TN; The Village Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Sound Emporium Studios, Nashville, TN
Assisted at The Village by Jeff Gartenbaum & Matt Dyon
Mixed by David Boucher at Chateau Boucher

References[]

Navigation[]

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