| Intro | American record producer from Rhode Island | ||
| A.K.A. | Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald | ||
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Musician Composer Business executive Music executive Record producer Singer Songwriter Guitarist Businessperson |
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| From | United States of America | ||
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Business Music |
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| Gender | male | ||
| Birth | 26 September 1973, Providence, USA | ||
| Age: | 46 years | ||
| Star sign | Libra | ||
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Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald (born September 26, 1973), known professionally as Dr. Luke, is an American record producer, songwriter, and singer. His professional music career began in the late night television sketch comedy Saturday Night Live as its house band’s lead guitarist in 1997 and producing remixes for artists such as Bon Jovi and Gravediggaz. He came into music prominence in 2004 for producing Kelly Clarkson’s single “Since U Been Gone” with Swedish record producer Max Martin.
Gottwald continued to co-write and produce commercially successful records such as “Who Knew” (2006) for Pink, “Girlfriend” (2007) for Avril Lavigne, and “I Kissed a Girl” (2008) for Katy Perry, before leaving Saturday Night Live and reuniting with Clarkson for “My Life Would Suck Without You” (2009). Gottwald has also worked with Taio Cruz, B.o.B, Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, T.I., Flo Rida, Miley Cyrus, Jessie J, Juicy J, Ne-Yo, Shakira and Pitbull. He is also noted for signing recording artists such as Kesha and Sabi.
Gottwald’s work has been recognized with various music industry awards. Billboard named him one of the top performing producers of the 2000s. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awarded him Producer and Songwriter of the Year honors from 2009 to 2011. At the 53rd Grammy Awards, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and Perry’s Teenage Dream was nominated for Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
In October 2014, Kesha initiated a series of lawsuits, alleging sexual assault and abuse by Gottwald.
Early life
Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He is Jewish. His father, Janusz Jerzy Gottwald, was an architect who was born in Łask, Poland. Gottwald spent many of his formative years in New York City. He had originally wanted to be a drummer, but his parents refused to allow a drum kit in the house. At 13, he picked up his older sister’s guitar and taught himself how to play. As a teenager, Gottwald would “listen to bad music over and over, if there was a guitar part [he] admired, so [he] could figure out what the guitar player was doing right.”
Career
Gottwald attended the Manhattan School of Music for two years. He joined the Saturday Night Live Band as the lead guitarist in 1997 until the 2006–2007 season.
He produced tracks and remixes for various artists including Arrested Development and Nappy Roots. He released the 12″ single “Wet Lapse”, under the name Kasz, for Rawkus Records, and remixed the theme from the film Mortal Kombat. While deejaying at a house party, Gottwald met producer Max Martin and subsequently gave Martin a tour of New York clubs when Martin arrived in the city.
Gottwald owns two publishing companies, Kasz Money Publishing, for his own songs, and Prescription Songs, which employs other songwriters. As of January 2011, he has garnered 21 Top 40 Billboard Hot 100 singles, becoming the producer with the third most such hits since the charts were created.
He co-wrote and co-produced the Kelly Clarkson Hot 100 number two song, “Since U Been Gone” with Max Martin and provided the singer another hit in “Behind These Hazel Eyes”. Subsequent songs by Pink, “Who Knew” and “U + Ur Hand” reached the Hot 100 top ten. He would go on to co-produce a number one for Avril Lavigne with the song “Girlfriend” as well as seven other songs on the Lavigne album. He also achieved a UK number one with the song “About You Now” for the Sugababes. Gottwald contributed two songs to Katy Perry’s second album,”One of the Boys”. Hot 100 number one, “I Kissed a Girl” and “Hot n Cold”, as well as three songs to Britney Spears’ 2008 album, Circus, including the title track. He also co-produced the US number one song “Right Round” by Flo Rida. His third co-production for Kelly Clarkson, “My Life Would Suck Without You” reached the top of the Hot 100 as well. In late 2009, his song for Miley Cyrus, “Party in the U.S.A.” co-written by Jessie J, reached number two on the chart. In December 2009, Billboard named him as one of the top 10 producers of the decade.
On April 21, Gottwald was named Songwriter of the Year at the 2010 ASCAP Pop Music Awards and received 10 ASCAP Pop Music Awards for the year as the songwriter and publisher. He had received ten Pop Music Awards from ASCAP between 2006 and 2009. He was also named to Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, placing at number 33. Gottwald’s co-production for Katy Perry “California Gurls” debuted at number two on the Hot 100 and later reached number one. Second single “Teenage Dream” would follow suit. Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite”, co-produced by Gottwald, reached number one in the UK and number two in the US. He contributed to three more top ten songs, “Magic” for B.o.B, “My First Kiss” for 3OH!3, and “Take It Off” for Kesha, as well as a top five song, “Your Love Is My Drug”, by the latter on the Hot 100.
In 2010 he was named both the Number One Hot 100 Songwriter of the Year and Number One Producer of the Year by Billboard. At the start of 2011, Advertising Age called Gottwald “the year’s most successful producer and songwriter in terms of chart longevity.”
On the week ending March 3, 2012, Gottwald’s co-production for Katy Perry “Part of Me” became the 20th song to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100. He also produced Perry’s single “Wide Awake”, which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, whilst topping the US Pop Songs chart. On November 2, 2012, several songs from boy band One Direction’s second album Take Me Home were leaked online, including “Rock Me”, produced by Gottwald and frequent collaborators Cirkut, Emily Wright, and Kool Kojak.
As of April 2017, Luke was no longer listed on the official Sony Music website. Later that month, it was announced that Dr. Luke is no longer the CEO of Kemosabe Records. The same year Dr. Luke adopted the pseudonym Made in China. He has since produced songs for artists such as Trey Songz, Ne-Yo, and Big Boi.
In 2017, Luke began songwriting and producing for German singer-songwriter Kim Petras. He also produced five songs on Doja Cat’s second album Hot Pink (2019), including its number one single “Say So”.
Lawsuit with Kesha
In September 2013, Rebecca Pimmel, a fan of Kesha, set up a petition to “free” Kesha from Gottwald’s management and accused Luke of “stunting” Kesha’s creative growth as an artist. The petitioners concur with the position stated in Kesha’s TV series documentary, My Crazy Beautiful Life, in which Luke serves as an executive producer, that she had little creative control of her second album, Warrior.
In January 2014, shortly after Kesha was admitted to a rehab center for bulimia nervosa, Kesha’s mother, Pebe Sebert, made allegations that pressure for Kesha to lose weight came from Gottwald. Sebert claimed that Gottwald said that Kesha looked “like a refrigerator” which instigated her eating disorder. Gottwald denies these claims.
In October 2014, Kesha sued Gottwald, claiming sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, civil harassment, violation of California’s laws against unfair business practices, infliction of emotional distress (both intentional and negligent), and negligent retention and supervision. Gottwald responded by filing a countersuit alleging that Kesha’s lawsuit was an attempt by Kesha, her mother, and her new management firm to extort him into releasing her from her contract.
A preliminary injunction in which Kesha sought to be released from her contract was denied on February 19, 2016. Before her legal battle against Gottwald, in 2011, Kesha had previously sworn under oath that the producer had never assaulted or drugged her in a deposition for a lawsuit against her former managers at DAS Communications, a key piece of evidence that played a role in the court ruling in favor of the defense. In April 2016, Kesha claimed that she had been offered freedom from her contract if she recanted her rape allegations against Gottwald.
Since Gottwald’s countersuit was in New York, the court lacked jurisdiction to rule on incidents alleged to have occurred in California. Kesha filed suit in California, but a Los Angeles superior court judge froze Kesha’s lawsuit until Gottwald’s lawsuit, for breach of contract and defamation, was settled.
On April 6, 2016, New York Judge Shirley Kornreich dismissed Kesha’s claims of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and gender violence. “While Kesha’s [claim] alleges that she was sexually, physically and verbally abused by Gottwald for a decade, she describes only two specific instances of physical/sexual abuse,” Kornreich wrote. “And the most recent event described was alleged to have happened in 2008 and so falls outside of the statute of limitations.” The judge dismissed Kesha’s hate crime claim because the filings “do not allege that Gottwald harbored animus toward women or was motivated by gender animus when he allegedly behaved violently toward Kesha … Every rape is not a gender-motivated hate crime.” Kesha’s claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress was dismissed by the judge because “claims of insults about her value as an artist, her looks, and her weight are insufficient to constitute extreme, outrageous conduct intolerable in civilized society.”
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
- 2011 – Producer of the Year, Non-Classical (Nominated)
- 2011 – Album of the Year (Teenage Dream) (Nominated)
- 2014 – Song of the Year (“Roar”) (Nominated)
- 2014 – Producer of the Year, Non-Classical (Nominated)
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
- 2010 – Songwriter of the Year (Won)
- 2011 – Songwriter of the Year (Won)