Here's Why Demi Returned To Rock Music For The First Time Since Disney
Their new album, Holy Fvck, is a reflection of their growth.
Demi Lovato has entered a whole new era of her career. For the first time in over a decade, the singer, who uses she/her and they/them pronouns, has returned to rock music with their latest album, Holy Fvck. Lovato explained why she decided to leave pop behind in an Aug. 18 interview with The Los Angeles Times. “Back when I worked on Disney Channel, I knew I could go this hard,” Lovato said. “But it wasn’t until recently that I felt like I could accomplish this sound.”
Lovato first explored rock with her debut album, Don’t Forget, which dropped in September 2008. The record arrived just two months after Lovato first rose to fame with the premiere of their Disney Channel original movie, Camp Rock, that summer. She released her follow-up album, Here We Go Again, in July 2009, and since then, Lovato has released five other albums, alternating between pop, dance, and R&B.
Lovato explained switching to rock allowed her to release some pent-up frustrations. “I’ve had a lot of anger since coming out of treatment,” Lovato told the LA Times, referring to their latest stint in rehab, which lasted from November 2021 to January 2022. “These new songs are about taking the power back and owning my anger — something I pushed aside for years, because I thought it would make me less spiritual.”
Lovato added releasing their anger “out of the shadows” allowed them to heal as a person. “I am owning my dark side, and it doesn’t have to take me down,” they said.
Some of that anger is evident in her single “Skin of My Teeth.” The song, which dropped on June 10, references Lovato’s several stints in rehab over the years, with lyrics like, “Demi leaves rehab' again/ When is this sh*t gonna end?”
Meanwhile, their latest single, “29,” which dropped on Aug. 17, has some fans convinced it’s about Lovato’s ex-boyfriend, Wilmer Valderrama, who, she dated on-and-off from 2010 to 2016. The lyrics reference a 12-year age gap between an older man and a teenage girl; Lovato was 18 when she and Valderrama began dating.
“Finally twenty-nine/ Funny, just like you were at the time,” Lovato sings on the track. “Thought it was a teenage dream, just a fantasy, but was it yours or was it mine?”
Holy Fvck seems like it was a therapeutic album for Lovato to record. After hearing her first few singles, fans can’t wait to hear the rest of her new music.
