Demi Lovato Releases “Dancing with the Devil… The Art of Starting Over”

Demi Lovato hasn’t released an album since 2017 but finally, after surviving a drug overdose and releasing a powerful docu-series Dancing with the Devil about her hiatus and struggles, her first album in four years, Dancing With the Devil…The Art of Starting Over is available to stream today. The album is an exploration of the struggles as well as the aftermath of her overdose as she navigates sobriety and her life and career. During a livestream on Clubhouse she shared that she added the docu-series title to the album to reflect the importance of the Youtube original documentary.

“If you listen to it track by track, if you follow the track listing, it’s kind of actually like the non-official soundtrack to the documentary. Because it really does follow my life over the past couple of years,” she  said. “When we went through the track listing and kind of mapped out how it kind of coincided with my life’s story, it made sense to add the more emotional stuff in the beginning and then transition into ‘The Art of Starting Over.’”

Dancing With The Devil The Art Of Starting Over
🦋💖🌈 💿 #DWTDTAOSO
Album out April 2!

Pre-save it here: https://t.co/nfMs1VXHjH pic.twitter.com/jqzqAG96ht

— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) March 16, 2021

The album has been in the works since her signing with Scooter Braun in 2019. On January 26th, she released her first album single “Anyone” with a powerful performance at the 62nd Grammy Awards. That was her first performance following her overdose on July 2018.  Since then, she’s released stand-alone singles and collaborations with artists including Sam Smith and Marshmello but kept her fans in suspense for a second album single until February 4 with her song “What Other People Say” featuring Sam Fischer.

Other collaborations on the project include Ariana Grande, Noah Cyrus, and Saweetie, and such a wide range of artists genre-wise contributes to what Lovato describes as a melting pot of sound, including “R&B, soul, country, and 1990s pop”, according to Gulf News.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNDv34wBnTw/

“The Kind of Lover I Am” is already a stand-out track, as it’s the second-ever song where she embraces her pansexuality. “I’m a very fluid person when it comes to sexuality, so I wanted to write a song about that. That’s something that I hadn’t written about since ‘Cool for the Summer,’” she told Entertainment Weekly. But she also clarified, “This isn’t about bi-curiosity anymore. It’s a part of who I am and I feel very secure in that.”

More than anything, the project is a reflection of Demi’s ever-evolving strength and her embracing  her identities as a queer person, a Latina woman, and an internationally recognized artist.

“The most important thing you can do for yourself is to live your truth,” Demi told Rolling Stone. “Don’t let anyone try to control you or tell you who you are, and don’t conform.”