Demi Lovato Is Finally Ready to Share Song She Wrote Days Before Overdosing
Demi Lovato is preparing her comeback to the music scene with a new single, “Anyone.” In Friday’s episode of New Music Daily on Apple Beats 1 with Zane Lowe, the “Sober” singer gave fans a preview of what they can expect from the new song as well as where she is on her recovery journey.
Among the topics Lovato covers in the nearly 30-minute interview, she shares that the song she will premiere live for the first time at the Grammys on Sunday was written just days before her overdose in July 2018. Lovato told Lowe looking back, she now sees the lyrics to “Anyone” in a very different light.
“You kind of listen back to it and you kind of think, how did nobody listen to this song and think, ‘Let’s help this girl’?” Lovato told Lowe. “I even think that I was recording it in a state of mind where I felt like I was OK, but clearly I wasn’t. I even listened back to it and I’m like, ‘Gosh, I wish I could go back in time and help that version of myself.’ I feel like I was in denial.”
Following her overdose, Lovato was hospitalized for several weeks before entering residential treatment. She’s now been sober for over a year. Lovato credits wanting to share the music she recorded shortly before her overdose, namely “Anyone,” as a key aspect of her recovery. It was having a future-oriented goal that helped her.
“It was about a week after I had been in the hospital and I was finally like awake,” Lovato shared, adding:
I just remember hearing back the songs I had just recorded and thinking, ‘If there’s ever a moment where I get to come back from this, I want to sing this song.’ You know, a part of me was like looking towards the future because that’s what I do. When I’m struggling or when I’m going through a rough time, I look towards the future for hope and to change my perspective on things.
While Lovato said music has always been a key driver of her mental health journey, which includes bipolar disorder, an eating disorder, self-harm and addiction, she highlighted she needs other support too. Lovato told Lowe she works with her team to make sure she has extra support in place after big events, she’s focusing on her spirituality and she’s careful about the people she lets into her life.
“I feel like you can use things to cope in life and music has been a huge coping mechanism for me,” she said. “It’s been very therapeutic for me, but there’s only so much that music can do before you have to take responsibility and you have to take the initiative to get the help that you need.”
.@ddlovato has big plans for 2020. ???? She shares details with @zanelowe on @AppleMusic. #AnyoneIsComing https://t.co/lT2pedHG7B pic.twitter.com/Zr9CQHWWqw
— Beats 1 (@Beats1) January 24, 2020
In addition to singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, Lovato will perform “Anyone” live for the first time at the 62nd Grammy Awards on Sunday — her first major live performance since her 2018 overdose — which she told Lowe has been a moment that’s a long time coming.
“I feel like I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long,” Lovato said, adding:
I’m in the process of becoming more and more ready as time goes by. I think it’s taken me a long time to be able to even get this far, which is performing a song that’s so vulnerable to me on a stage in front of all my peers and coworkers, even people that I look up to. That’s kind of nerve wracking to think about. But at the same time I’m grateful that I have this opportunity to sit here and talk to you and tell a little bit of my story.
You can listen to Lovato’s full interview here:
Image via Creative Commons/jenniferlinneaphotography
Renée Fabian was the features editor at The Mighty. She has also written for The Washington Post, VICE, Healthline, Talkspace, The Fix, The Establishment, The Culture Trip, and GRAMMY.com, among others. Renée was named a 2019 AHCJ Comparative Effectiveness Research fellow, a 2020 USC Center for Health Journalism California fellow, and holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. You can follow her on Twitter @ryfabian.
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