Songfacts®:

• Kesha wrote "Learn To Let Go," with her mother, Pebe Sebert, who was already an accomplished songwriter by the time Kesha was born in 1987. In 2014, both mother and daughter were in crisis and entered rehab, Kesha for an eating disorder and Pebe to get sober. This song is very important to them because it explains a key precept that helped them weather the storm. "It's a 'just got out of rehab' type song," Pebe said in a Songfacts interview. "You've got to learn to let go, you can't hold on to the past."
• Kesha described how her mom's words of wisdom took on a life of its own during its recording. "When we got to the studio the song just started flowing," she recalled. "My mom is always telling me how you have to learn to accept that you can't try to control everything. When you realize that you are not the one in control and you stop holding onto regrets it's liberating. Your past only has as much effect on your future as you want it to. It's about embracing your past, but not letting it define you."
• Here, Kesha sings about coming to terms with past resentments, fears and experiences and charting a new course for her future. "'Learn to Let Go' is more than a song title," Kesha wrote in The Huffington Post. "It's become one of my mantras over the last few years. As much as our past creates who we are, we can't let it define us or hold us back. And especially if you've been through something hard, and we all have, you can't hold on to resentment because it's like a poison. You have to learn to let go of those bad feelings and move forward."
• Following "Praying," "Learn To Let Go" was the second single from Kesha's third album, Rainbow, her first with no participation from Dr. Luke, the producer she accused of abuse in 2014.
• The song was produced Stuart Crichton, formerly of the UK dance duo Narcotic Thrust (an anagram of Stuart Crichton). Crichton has also worked with such acts as Kylie Minogue, Sugababes and Pet Shop Boys.
• Kesha released an accompanying music video featuring footage from her childhood. The clip is a collaboration with Isaac Ravishankara, the same director the singer worked with the songstress on another Rainbow song "Hymn." Kesha said: "I wanted all of the videos on the project to have a colorful and idiosyncratic style. This video in particular I wanted to feel nostalgic and otherworldly because it's about me reconnecting to my childlike innocence."