In the pop-diva canon, Ke$ha has traditionally been thought of as Katy Perry's naughty older sister or Christina Aguilera's rappy cousin. But this characterization is wholly unfair to the woman (curvy woman!) who's currently tearing her way through a series of great TV performances of her single, "Die Young," the latest of which was during this morning's The Today Show (embeded above).

Earlier this week, Ke$ha was introduced by Cyndi Lauper at the American Music Awards, where she belted out the song on a much grander scale:

Her practice round for these two performances took place on the Australian version of The X Factor, which apparently has much better special effects and camera operators than the AMA's do:

Besides a great run of performances, she's got a really great voice under all of that autotune. Take a look at her cover of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" for proof of that. Deep sea divers have treked deep into the waters of that performance and they have not been able to find any flaws whatsoever.

Even with all of these live showings, "Die Young" is still stalled at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, just stuck behind Maroon 5's miserable "One More Night" and Rihanna's Lana Del Rey inspired "Diamonds." Even if you're not the biggest Ke$ha fan, you've got to root for her to beat out the insipid Adam Levine and Rihanna, the kooky captian of the skies.