UPDATE: Taylor Swift gives $350,000 to Kesha

UPDATE 22/2/2016 4:00pm: Taylor Swift has joined other female members of the music industry to support singer Kesha, after being denied release from her Sony contract with music producer Dr Luke. Swift reportedly donated US$ 250,000 (around AU$ 350,000) to Kesha’s legal fund so she can continue her legal battle.

Twitter user @grannywrapper wrote, "Taylor Swift has just generously donated $250,000 to Kesha, as a show of support during this difficult time.AMAZING!!"

It was not a good weekend for the “TiK ToK” singer after the New York State Supreme Court failed to convince the judge to rule in her favour on Friday, according to the New York Daily News. Kesha, 28, filed for an injunction to be released from the recording company following her accusations that Dr Luke physically, sexually and mentally abused her.

In addition to fans, fellow musicians took to Twitter to express their support for the embattled singer, using the hashtag #FreeKesha.

In her Twitter account, Lady Gaga posted a message of encouragement for Kesha. “There are people all over the world who love you,” she wrote. “And I can say truly I am in awe of your bravery.”

Lorde, on the other hand, also wrote, “standing with @KeshaRose through this traumatic, deeply unfair time. send good vibes her way everyone.”

Other singers who cheered on Kesha included Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea, Lily Allen and Demi Lovato. Lovato wrote a series of tweets to stand up for Kesha, including a controversial post that read, “I'm also ready for self-proclaimed feminists to start speaking out or taking action for women's rights.”

Fans were quick to speculate that Lovato’s tweet targets Taylor Swift, who recently bagged “Album of the Year” at the 58th Grammy Awards for “1989.”

Swift has discussed about feminism in a number of interviews before. “Becoming friends with Lena (Dunham) – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so,” Swift told The Guardian, which published an article about her in August 2014. In another interview, this time with Rolling Stone in May 2015, she was quoted as saying, “Feminism is probably the most important movement that you could embrace, because it's just basically another word for equality.”

Swift’s clear stand on female empowerment was also made clear during her acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards, when she targeted Kanye West. “As the first woman to win Album of the Year for the Grammys twice, I wanna say to all the young women out there that there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments, for your fame,” Swift said. “But if you just focus on the work, and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll around and you’ll know it was you and the people who love you who put you there. And that would be the greatest feeling in the world. Thank you for this moment,” she continued.

While Lovato did not mention Swift’s name, fans believe that it was a dig at the “Bad Blood” singer.

In October 2014, Kesha filed a lawsuit against 42-year old Dr Luke, alleging that the music producer has been abusing her since she signed with him when she was just 18, according to a report by Billboard.