Demi Lovato’s new album dropped Thursday night, and the songstress is opening up about some of her powerful new songs. She’s also reflecting on some of the album’s most emotional tracks and biggest collaborations.
Lovato launched her album, Dancing With the Devil … The Art of Starting Over — which serves as a companion to her revealing documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil — and she celebrated the new tracks by holding a premiere party of sorts on YouTube’s Released.
During the special, Lovato reflected on a few songs in particular, beginning with “Met Him Last Night,” which features one of her “really good friends,” Ariana Grande.
“I played her ‘Dancing With the Devil’ and she was really, really excited about that and she came up with this concept,” Lovato shared. “When she played it for me, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely! I would love to do this.'”
“I was so excited to get to work with her and we had so much fun singing together,” Lovato added.
“This song was best representative of a period of my life that… I talk about in my documentary, which is kind of the downfalls of recovery,” she continued. “Which is that sometimes you slip up, which is what this song is about.”
One of the most power singles on the ambitious 19-track album is “ICU,” which she admits was “really difficult to sing and write.”
“I wrote it for my little sister, Madison. We didn’t know how bad my brain damage would be [after her overdose],” Lovato recalled. “When I woke up in the hospital, I couldn’t see her, and that’s what this song is about: not being able to see her but, at the same time, I use the lyrics, ‘I was blind, but now I see, and I see you.’ I’m talking about, no matter what, always being able to see my little sister.”
“I actually played it for her in the car after she graduated high school,” she continued. “I was like, ‘Hey, I have a little present for you.’ We both were just sobbing the whole time because that moment was really emotional for the both of us.”
At the end of the YouTube special, Lovato performed “ICU” live to an audience, and sweetly concluded her performance with a special message to her 19-year-old sister, sharing, “I love you, Madison!”
