What is Kesha’s IQ?
Her SAT was reported near-perfect. The 140 that travels with that story traces to unsourced lists, not to a test.
Kesha’s IQ score has never been published, and the 140 attached to her online cites no test. What is on record is a 2010 NPR profile that calls her SAT scores near-perfect, her own account of International Baccalaureate classes, and writing credits on every track of Gag Order (2023) and Period (2025).
Kesha’s estimated IQ
- NPR’s January 15, 2010 profile describes her as having near-perfect SAT scores; celebrity lists give 1500 out of 1600, but no page that states the number cites a source.
- In the same NPR piece she says she was in the International Baccalaureate program, loved physics and math, and drove to Belmont, a college in Nashville, to listen to Cold War history classes.
- Credited as a writer on every track of Gag Order (2023, where she is also executive producer) and of Period (2025, where she is a credited producer on several tracks), released on her own label, Kesha Records.
- Two Grammy nominations at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018 (Best Pop Vocal Album for Rainbow; Best Pop Solo Performance for “Praying”), no wins, per Grammy.com.
The SAT total is second-hand: NPR’s web text gives no number, and the 1500 sits on lists with no source, no test year and no College Board record behind it. An SAT measures part of general ability on one day, and songwriting credits are achievement, not an IQ test, so 125–140 is an inference, not a recovered score.
- Born
- March 1, 1987, Los Angeles, California
- Field
- Singer-songwriter and record producer (formerly styled Ke$ha)
- Education
- Franklin High School and Brentwood High School, Tennessee; left school at 17; no college degree documented
- Reported SAT
- “Near-perfect” (NPR, 2010); 1500 of 1600 on celebrity lists with no cited source
- Known for
- “Tik Tok” (nine weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100), Rainbow (2017), Gag Order (2023), Period (2025)
- Honors
- Two Grammy nominations (2018), no wins (Grammy.com)
- Circulating IQ
- 140, with no cited test
- Label for Period (2025)
- Kesha Records, her own independent label
What an IQ of 125–140 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Kesha is
Kesha Rose Sebert was born on March 1, 1987, in Los Angeles and grew up in the Nashville area, where she attended Franklin High School and Brentwood High School in Tennessee. She was styled Ke$ha early in her career. In the NPR interview with host Scott Simon (January 15, 2010) she called herself “very studious”, said she was in the International Baccalaureate program, loved physics and math and played in the marching band. Franklin High School, in Franklin, Williamson County, was the first high school in Tennessee to offer the IB program, according to Wikipedia; NPR does not say which school she means. She left high school at 17 to work in music. No gifted-program placement, valedictorian title or AP record turned up in anything checked for this page.
Her craft record starts before the fame. She co-wrote the song “Stephen” at 16, signed a publishing deal with Prescription Songs in 2005 at 18, and co-wrote The Veronicas’ single “This Love” before her own breakthrough. “Tik Tok,” which she co-wrote, was released on August 7, 2009, spent nine weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the 2010 year-end Hot 100. She wrote or co-wrote every song on her first two albums, Animal (2010) and Warrior (2012), the second released on November 30, 2012.
Rainbow (August 11, 2017) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 117,000 album-equivalent units; she is among its credited producers and co-wrote all but one of its original tracks. It earned her two Grammy nominations at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018, for Best Pop Vocal Album and, for “Praying”, Best Pop Solo Performance. She has no Grammy wins; Grammy.com lists two nominations. High Road followed on January 31, 2020.
Gag Order (May 19, 2023) credits her as writer on every track and as executive producer, working primarily with producer Rick Rubin; it holds a Metacritic average of 75 from 11 reviews. Period (July 4, 2025) came out on her own label, Kesha Records; she is credited as writer on every track of the standard edition and as producer on several, and it debuted at number 17 on the Billboard 200. In May 2026 she was launching the Freedom Tour, according to an NPR interview of May 24, 2026. These are documented craft and control of her own catalog; they are not an IQ test.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
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Kesha: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1987Born March 1 in Los Angeles.
- c. 2003–04Co-writes the song “Stephen” at 16 while at high school in the Nashville area.
- 2005Signs a publishing deal with Prescription Songs at 18.
- 2009Signs a multi-album deal with RCA Records; “Tik Tok” is released on August 7.
- 2010Animal is released; “Tik Tok” tops the 2010 year-end Billboard Hot 100; NPR profiles her on January 15.
- 2012Warrior is released on November 30; she wrote or co-wrote every song on her first two albums.
- 2017Rainbow is released on August 11 and debuts at number one on the Billboard 200.
- 2018Two Grammy nominations at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
- 2023Gag Order is released on May 19; she is credited as writer on every track and executive producer.
- 2025Period is released on July 4 on Kesha Records; debuts at number 17 on the Billboard 200.
Where the 140 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
The “high IQ” label on Kesha rests on a figure of 140 that traces to no test. Songfacts says she has “a reported IQ of over 140”; InMusic (March 1, 2024) says she “boasts” an IQ of 140, which it places in the top 2 percent; Famous People Today (updated May 21, 2024) writes “according to reports” and “around 140”. None names a psychologist, a test or a date. The InMusic gloss is also off by plain arithmetic: on a scale with a standard deviation of 15, the top 2 percent starts near 131, and a score around 140 is closer to the top 0.4 percent.
The 140 almost always arrives next to an SAT story, which is the likelier origin: two of the three pages above pair it with a near-perfect score, and the number looks reasoned from the score rather than measured. The SAT claim itself has a real, if thin, root. NPR’s 2010 profile of her says in its own words, on its web page, that she had “near-perfect SAT scores”, with no number. The figure of 1500 out of 1600 appears on PrepScholar’s celebrity list (updated August 19, 2024) with no source and no year, and Ivy Coach says its celebrity scores came from interviews, gossip columns and hearsay and were rescaled to 1600. The same story circulates on Reddit: a BuzzFeed roundup of an r/AskReddit thread (July 16, 2021) repeats an “almost perfect” SAT and a Barnard College admission, and gives no IQ at all.
What would a 1500 mean if it is right? The 2400-point SAT replaced the 1600-point version with the March 2005 administration, and she left high school at 17, so a score taken while she was enrolled would belong to the 1600 scale. Frey and Detterman (Psychological Science, 2004) found SAT scores correlated with general cognitive ability at r = .82 in their sample, high but not perfect. Any SAT-to-IQ conversion therefore pulls an extreme score back toward the mean. That is why a reported 1500 supports a range that tops out around the circulating 140, rather than a flat 140 or higher.
Where the number came from matters more than its size: it is the usual celebrity IQ pattern, a round figure copied from page to page until it reads as fact. Shakira carries the same 140 in this section. On the evidence, Kesha’s range starts five points above the 120–135 estimates for Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, because a school-record data point, however second-hand, exists for her and not for them.
How we read a number →NPR’s own text says “near-perfect SAT scores” with no number; she says she was in the International Baccalaureate program, loved physics and math and drove to Belmont to sit in on history classes. The strongest primary item on her school record.
Confirms the 2026 Freedom Tour and her account of writing and singing her own songs.
Zero wins, two nominations (Best Pop Solo Performance for “Praying”, Best Pop Vocal Album for Rainbow, both 2018); she describes writing Gag Order and Period songs.
Birth date, schools, publishing deal, release dates, chart peaks, credits and Franklin’s IB program. Used for orientation; load-bearing figures were cross-checked against NPR and Grammy.com where possible.
Listed on PubMed (PMID 15147489); the r = .82 SAT-to-g correlation is as reported on Wikipedia’s SAT article. Cited for why a single extreme SAT score regresses toward the mean.
Searched news, interviews, school and award records and celebrity lists. No page names a test, a date or a psychologist for any Kesha IQ score.
Says she scored a near-perfect 1500 on her SATs, has a “reported IQ of over 140”, and turned down a Barnard scholarship. No source given.
State 140 (“around 140” according to “reports”) with no test, date or source; one adds a top-2-percent claim that does not fit a 140.
List 1500 out of 1600; PrepScholar names no source or year and Ivy Coach says the scores came from interviews, gossip columns and hearsay, rescaled to 1600.
Repeats an “almost perfect” SAT and a Barnard admission; contains no IQ figure.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Kesha, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
Songfacts gives a “reported IQ of over 140”; InMusic (March 1, 2024) says 140 and “top 2%”; Famous People Today (updated May 21, 2024) says “around 140” “according to reports”. A 1500 SAT is usually quoted in the same breath.
No Kesha IQ test result has been published, and none of the pages that state the number cites a test, a psychologist, a date or an interview in which she gives it. The nearest thing to a measurement is her SAT, which NPR’s 2010 web text calls near-perfect without a figure; the 1500 appears on PrepScholar and Ivy Coach lists that name no source for it.
Unusually for this section, the circulating 140 sits at the top edge of the estimated IQ level rather than above it. That makes it plausible if the SAT report is accurate, but plausible is not documented, and the 140 has nothing under it.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Kesha — frequently asked
What is Kesha’s IQ?
No IQ test result has ever been published for Kesha. The 140 that circulates cites no test, and the estimated IQ on this page is 125–140, inferred from a reported near-perfect SAT, International Baccalaureate coursework and songwriting credits, not from a measured score.
Is Kesha a genius?
There is no documented basis for a Kesha genius IQ, and no test says so. What is documented is a reported near-perfect SAT, writing credits on every track of Gag Order and Period, and two Grammy nominations. That is strong evidence of ability, not a genius-level score.
Did Kesha take an IQ test?
No record of a Kesha IQ test exists. No interview, school file or psychologist’s report with an IQ result was found. The nearest thing to a test score is her SAT, which NPR called near-perfect in 2010; celebrity lists put it at 1500 out of 1600 without citing a source.
What was Kesha’s SAT score?
Celebrity lists say 1500 out of 1600, but none cites a source or a test year. NPR’s 2010 profile says only that she had near-perfect SAT scores. Several sites add a Barnard College scholarship or acceptance, and they differ on whether she enrolled; no school or College Board record confirming any of it was found.
Is Kesha smart?
The record points to a strong student turned writer-producer. She describes International Baccalaureate classes and a love of physics and math (NPR, 2010) and is credited as a writer on every track of Gag Order and Period. Smart is fair; a specific IQ level is not documented.
Where does the Kesha IQ 140 figure come from?
It appears on celebrity listicles such as Songfacts, InMusic and Famous People Today as a “reported” or “around” 140, with no test, date or psychologist named. Two of those pages pair it with the 1500 SAT, which suggests it was inferred from the score rather than measured.
How does Kesha’s estimated IQ compare with Lady Gaga’s and Taylor Swift’s?
On this site Kesha’s estimate of 125–140 sits five points above the 120–135 ranges for Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift. The gap rests on a reported near-perfect SAT, which is second-hand; none of the three has a published test result, and the ranges overlap heavily.
How does my IQ compare with Kesha?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other musicians profiles, starting with Brian May.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More musicians profiles — same field, same method
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Photograph by Carlos M. Vazquez II, CC BY 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by iHeartRadioCA, CC BY 3.0. The background-removed portrait above is a derivative work offered under the same licence. · Photograph by Glenn Francis (www.PacificProDigital.com; iHeartRadio Music Awards, Los Angeles, March 14, 2019), CC BY-SA 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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