“People should be able to love whoever they want to love. That’s what love is,” speaks a voice at the beginning of Kesha’s new video.
Same sex-couple Dani and Lindsay are the protagonists of Kesha’s touching visual, soundtracked by “I Need a Woman to Love”, released as a part of the Universal Love project. It is a reimagining of the song “I Need a Man to Love” by Janis Joplin – an act that has turned a classic love song into a queer triumph.
The video, directed by Kesha’s brother Lagan Serbet, shows Kesha driving through the desert on her way to Las Vegas, where she will officiate the marriage of Dani and Lindsay, a couple who watched Kesha perform live in 2015 during a Pride event.
The video is broken up by touching interviews where we hear from Kesha and both Dani and Lindsay, who sing the praises of the artist and of all the things she has done in the past couple of years. “She was performing and she had her whole huge rainbow flag as a cape and her rainbow outfit,” recalls Lindsay from the 2015 concert, where anti- LGBTQ protesters were present. Filled with emotion, the couple explain that despite this, Kesha made clear that in the concert, “it’s all love”.
The Universal Love EP, which gives a new take on wedding and other classic love songs to make them more LGBTQ-inclusive, also features St. Vincent, Bob Dylan, and more. Kesha herself has long been a passionate LGBTQ ally and advocate.
The ceremony in “I Need a Woman to Love’ was held on March 26, 2018, which marks the anniversary of the first same-sex marriage license in the U.S. Watch it below.
