Kesha OK with song being pulled after Newtown, Conn. shooting - Action News
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Entertainment

Kesha OK with song being pulled after Newtown, Conn. shooting

A new song by Kesha is among the music that has been dropped from radio playlists in the days after the Newtown, Conn. shooting, but the pop singer says she understands the decision.

Foster the People's teen shooting song Pumped Up Kicks also dropped by stations

Kesha, seen onstage in Atlanta on Dec. 12, says she understands why her latest hit has been removed from radio play following the Newtown, Conn. shooting. (Ben Rose/Getty Images)

A new song by Kesha is among the music that has been dropped from radio playlists in the days after the Newtown, Conn. shooting, but the pop singer says she understands the decision.

A host of radio program directors have removed her hit track Die Young from rotation, as well as other songs that could appear insensitive in light of the mass shooting that left 20 schoolchildren and six adults dead, along with the gunman and his mother.

Die Young, which is the first track off Kesha's newly released album Warrior and had been rising up the music charts, is a pop-dance song about partying as if each day was one's last.

"I'm so, so sorry for anyone who has been [affected] by this tragedy," singer Kesha Sebert wrote in a post from her Twitter account on Tuesday. "I understand why my song is now inappropriate. Words cannot express."

Another song some stations have pulled is indie band Foster the People's breakthrough hit Pumped up Kicks, which deals with gun violence and portrays a troubled, isolatedteen with homicidal thoughts. The chorus includes thelyrics: "All the other kids with the pumped-up kicks, you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun... better run faster than my bullet."

The entertainment industry in general responded quickly with programming changes following the shooting. Splashy movie premieres were cancelled, with some later screened privately, without fanfare. TV networks swapped out some shows and added disclaimers to others, in addition to broadcasting news specials and talk show instalments addressing the massacre and its aftermath.

Radio stations also responded by tempering their playlists. One station located just miles from the stricken Connecticut community told Billboard that it has focused on music considered more comforting and allowed listeners to call in and express their grief on-air.