Once again we are early into a new year, 2018. Many of us make resolutions to change a way of life, or start something new. All of our endeavors of course come with good intentions. However, when a new year is upon us, we tend to look back on previous years. A reflection on what our lives were like in the past. As a blogger going into year eight of this publication, I recently took a look back at some of the posts that I chose to start each year. Sometimes very famous musicians were featured, other times very new artists or not as well-known have started the year. Nevertheless, the start of each year has provided a fresh look at the music industry and compelling views of the featured artist. 2018 is no different as I made the choice of young superstar Demi Lovato.
This is not the first time Weekly Music Commentary featured Demi Lovato. Almost five years ago Demi’s career was examined in the post The Journey From Barney To Music Superstar. Lovato, twenty years old at the time, had a start as a young child in the television show Barney and Friends. Her career included a journey through Disney Channel television-film Camp Rock. She released three albums: Don’t Forget, Here We Go Again and Unbroken. Her music and Disney Channel series Sonny with a Chance propelled her career to new heights. Much of her career defining works happened before Demi’s twenty-first birthday. However, most of these events happened before the end of 2013, meaning there was more to come.
Appropriately, the post you are reading is titled The Rest Of The Demi Lovato story. It highlights the events and career accomplishments from 2013 until today. What are those events from the life and career of Demi Lovato? Let’s find out and look at them.
Demi was released on May 10, 2013. The album, Lovato’s fourth studio album, debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 110,000 copies, the best-selling début week of Lovato’s career. It was also successful internationally, charting in the top ten in New Zealand, Spain and the UK. and has been certified Gold in the US. Demi received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who complimented Lovato’s vocal performance. Lovato chose the title of the album Demi, because it was her first album intended for a more mainstream audience, and those who did not know her music.
Lovato stated: “My life has changed so much. I am vulnerable and honest in this record, the way I’ve always wanted to be. I was ready to come out of the darkness”. She referred to the writing process for the album as “therapeutic”, further stating: “It helped me get rid of my demons, I am a warrior now. I’ve been through so much in the past years, it was hard to find the courage to get out of it and write about it, I was afraid no one would understand my message. I spent so much time trying to figure out what the right thing to do was, that I got distracted along the way by fun and temptations and that’s why I ended up in rehab at 18”.
Demi Lovato’s very personal music was coupled with a journey back to the small screen with an appearance in four episodes of the fifth season of the television show Glee. She played Dani, a struggling New York-based artist who befriends Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) and interacts with fellow newcomer Adam Lambert’s character.
On November 19, 2013 Demi Lovato released a book, Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year, which topped The New York Times bestseller list.
Lovato’s fifth album, Confident, was released on October 16, 2015. It was released by Hollywood, Island and Safehouse Records. The record label Safehouse Records was created by artists Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas and their manager Phil McIntyre. Their goal is to “put artists in control of their art while providing them the best tools to manage their careers” Demi Lovato spoke about the album before it’s release. “The sound just evolves into everything that I’ve been and everything that I want to become.” She also said, “I’ve never been so sure of myself as an artist when it comes down to confidence, but not only personal things, but exactly what I want my sound to be and what I know I’m capable of and this album will give me the opportunity to show people what I can really do.”
That brings us to right now. Demi Lovato’s current album Tell Me You Love Me released September 29, 2017. For Tell Me You Love Me, Lovato adopted R&B as a key to archive her desired “mature” sound. According to her, she wanted to make sure that this “album showcased her voice.” For Pitchfork, Jamieson Cox stated that Lovato “has finally settled into a consistently compelling space: flinty, flirty R&B that’s just as thrilling hushed as it is at full blast”, and noticed the improvement over her previous works, “It gives you enough space to see Demi as something other than a no-holds-barred belter. You want to get to know the Lovato behind Tell Me You Love Me, something you can’t definitively say about any of her other releases”.
I must say that this Demi Lovato album is different, and very good. Tell Me You Love Me is an album that quickly made it into my personal library, and I count as one of my favorites. I have written before that my personal library of music is the greatest compliment I can give to any musical work. There are certain songs that I like more than others, but I do listen to the entire album. As I listen to Tell Me You Love Me, I do feel like I get a sense of who Demi Lovato is as an artist. I like the rest of her story musically, and believe in five years there might be even more to tell.