Nearly three years after Demi Lovato almost lost her life following an overdose, the star has finally shared her story with the world via her new album Dancing With The Devil... The Art of Starting Over, and documentary Dancing With The Devil.
Dancing With The Devil... The Art of Starting Over is Demi's seventh full-length album and showcases a prelude of three songs, followed by "The Art of Starting Over" which consists of 16 songs, including features from Ariana Grande ("Met Him Last Night"), Saweetie ("My Girlfriends Are My Boyfriend"), Noah Cyrus ("Easy") and Sam Fischer ('What Other People Say").
Demi celebrated the release of her new music during her exclusive iHeartRadio Album Release Party, during which she opened up about Dancing With The Devil... The Art of Starting Over and more in an intimate conversation with iHeartRadio's Elvis Duran, as well as answered some questions from a few fans who joined her via Zoom.
Lovato explained to Duran of her new documentary and album, "I'm really excited for everyone to see it because there's just so much in my life that I've wanted to talk about over the past couple of years. And I felt like I really had to do a lot of explaining about where I've been over the past several years to explain to everyone who I am today. And so that's what the documentary was. And the album is kind of like an unofficial soundtrack to the documentary because it really takes you through my life over the past few years."
She added, "Hopefully I'm just the version of myself that I'm supposed to be today. And, I'm proud of the person that I am today. I'm proud that I haven't lost sight of who I am, where I came from, but I have evolved enough to know how to grow up and be a boss."
Although Demi has several collaborations on her new album, she didn't get to record any of the tracks with any her collaborators. She recalled, "The Sam Fisher collaboration came about earlier than the other ones. The other ones just came about in the last few months. But, the Sam Fisher one was really great. We didn't get to work together, we met each other on the set of the music video. I actually still haven't met Saweetie in person. And of course I know Noah and Ariana, but I didn't get to work with them face to face either. So, it was really interesting because, you know, I have four collaborations on my album, but I'd never went into the studio with any of them."
Demi covers a multitude of subjects based on her life over the last few years on her new album, but she is most excited for everyone to hear "California Sober," because it is representative of where she is now. She said, "It just is really telling of the journey that I'm on today." In the song, she sings, "I'm California sober/ It doesn't have to mean the growin' part is over/ No, it ain't black or white, it's all of the colors/ That I only just discovered/ Now I'm California sober."
Speaking of the journey that she's on today, Demi has learned quite about herself in making this album. Answering a fan's question, she explained, "What I learned about myself while writing this album ... I'm a catch. And I deserve the best kind of love. And I hope that everyone that listens to this album can see the same thing for themselves. And I realized that I never want to settle for anything less than what makes me feel absolutely amazing in a relationship. And actually, this album kind of helped me fall in love with myself because I've never been able to really feel super confident and stable on my own. And this is the first time in my life where I am single and alone, and I feel happier than ever before — even happier than some relationships I've been in. So, it's been a really cool process getting to know myself, but I learned that I'm a catch and I deserve someone great. And, I'm gonna wait until I find them."
So, what's next for Demi? The star is dreaming of accomplishing a lot beyond just music. She revealed, "My dreams were limited to the music industry before. I didn't really dream much bigger than charts and awards. I was okay with dreaming that little for a while. But, now my dreams are so much bigger. It's just about wanting to dip my toes in other areas [and] other businesses that I am passionate about, really passionate about. I won't get involved in something that it isn't meaningful to me. So, I have different goals and different aspirations, but I feel like I don't want to say too much because it might give future projects away. But, I'm dreaming bigger than just music. And that's exciting."