Singer Demi Lovato’s latest album Dancing With The Devil: The Art of Starting Over is one of the biggest debuts of the year, reaching number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 and charting within the top 10 in 12 different countries.
The album’s companion documentary, “Dancing With The Devil”, which chronicled the events that brought them to a near fatal drug overdose in 2018, left audiences captivated when it premiered at SXSW in March.
Lovato, who identifies as pansexual and nonbinary, takes viewers on a roller coaster ride of seeking serenity in chaos, recognizing that life is not static and neither are they. It’s a really moving documentary that is worth watching for anyone who’d like to learn more about the struggles of being a child star, addiction, and trauma.
In the doc, Lovato tackles a number of heavy issues, from drug and alcohol addiction to body image to how being in beauty pageants from a very early age fueled a competitiveness within them.
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They also talk about how their relationship with their father–who struggled with addiction, and lived with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia–impacted their journey to self-love. And they gets real about being raped and left for dead after they overdosed by the person who sold their drugs.
Since leaving rehab and ending their hiatus, Lovato has leaned into their queer identity in a whole new way, exploring their own sexual fluidity and defying the gender expectations forced upon them throughout their southern Christian upbringing.
Lovato has also used their platform to support the loved ones of Duante Wright, the Black man who was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Kimberly Potter at a traffic stop in April, and to bring attention to the anti-Black racism embedded in police departments.
The time for accountability is RIGHT NOW! Civilians should not be held to a higher standard than TRAINED officers. We need #PoliceReformNOW
Take action with the @NAACP here: https://t.co/MDKc1j32eG
— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) April 15, 2021
Lovato gives us pride for their bravery in speaking so openly about their struggles, sharing their story of healing, and using their platform to speak out about the things they believes in.
Welcome to Queerty’s Pride50. We’re celebrating the members from our community who are responsible for some of the most inspiring and extraordinary moments for LGBTQ people over the last year. See all the honorees
LumpyPillows
Demi cut her hair short and decided to be non-binary, what a surprise. Non-binary is more about fashion than anything and should not be under our umbrella – it’s demeaning to be compared to these confused over-sharers. Yes, everyone is unique and moods change; I really don’t want to hear about how you think this is a gender. It isn’t.
Donston
It’s funny how you accuse me of being an pretentious know-it-all. Yet, here you are being dismissive and telling people what they are and aren’t. The funny/sad thing is that I genuinely don’t believe you can comprehend how much of an condescending a-hole you’re being. Or maybe you just get off on that.
Gender and sexual fluidity (real fluidity) are not mere “mood swings”. They’re genuine shifts in your dimensions, instincts, sense of self, preferences, attractions, etc. And yes, real fluidity, contradictions and dimensions are often at least semi connected to traumas and mental health issues. It is what it is.
Do I completely align with the them/they and non-binary stuff? Not really. But I don’t look to tell people what they are and aren’t. While the fact that a-holes like you are so damn uncomfortable with this stuff actually makes me support it more. Y’all don’t want any real change, progress and growth. You just want people to follow what you perceive as the “rules”. And then you wonder why younger people think you’re old a-holes who have nothing else to offer.
Seth
Regardless of pronouns, they’re still an intolerable professional victim whose 15 minutes always seem to need a PR stunt to stay relevant.
scrough
Their true addiction is attention. I’m not sure I buy any of this. I’ll use their preferred pronouns out of respect but this seems sudden. It is also right on the heels of announcing they’re sober, but not really. Still using mind-altering drugs while abstaining from alcohol is few people’s definition of sober. So, it all seems like a gimmick to draw attention and ultimately sell music. We will see in a year or more from now. I hope I’m proven wrong.
Pistolo
Their “spinning trauma into gold” is a problematic, dangerous notion to me. This is not to say they shouldn’t incorporate their emotional strife into their art or openly discuss it but I’m seeing a constant need for validation in Demi’s actions and it scares me. When you’re always discussing these things in tandem with a documentary or a podcast, when it becomes part of your brand that means your career kind of hinges on living within the trauma constantly. If people are always praising you for it, always salivating over morbid revelations so they can use them as clickbait then I can see how it’d be very easy for Demi to conflate their trauma with their success. Add to that the fickleness of social media, add to the addictiveness of social media, add to that the image-conscious nature of social media and media as a whole and you’ve the perfect recipe for a kind of dependency on attention. It seems like Demi is still very much “in it”, the trauma- triggered by Froyo, “California sober”, etc….doesn’t seem healthy.
humble charlie
What artists don’t turn their trauma into art? I just feel sorry for whomever is in an intimate relationship with her and nuts like her (ex. Ariana Grande). They’re a good eff in the beginning, but for the long haul get the hell outta there!
Terrycloth
We used to have gay , straight and bi.
Now on.an application.after your name there will be 500 boxes you can check the one that you decide to be called
Sqwoah
This is the punishment we get for ever paying her any attention to begin with
Centrism
My comment was removed for no good reason other than they didn’t like my opinion. Shocking.