Demi Lovato was admitted to the hospital for an overdose. After the event, she stayed away from her spotlight for a long time, giving rise to all kinds of speculation.
In spring 2020, the pop star is ready to tell her story in a four-part documentary series broadcast on YouTube. Her title is Dancing with the Devil, like the album that supports her return to her music, and in reference to the demons that have accompanied her and recognizes that they will accompany her for life.
When the singer and lyricist broke down, no one around her suspected her dalliances with hard drugs. In fact, a camera crew of hers was accompanying her during her Tell Me You Love Me world tour in a documentary extolling her strength.
“I was only letting them see the tip of the iceberg”, admits the artist in a meeting during the last South By Southwest festival in Austin (Texas), where the series had its debut.
One month after celebrating six years of sobriety on stage at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, she details how she became rampant in experimenting with narcotics such as mixing methamphetamine with MDMA, cocaine, oxycodone, marijuana and crack.
She is impressed to see in the first sequences Demi's hand tattooed with a lion, pierced by a dropper. Without looking for it, the feline covered in tape is a metaphor for the external image of self-improvement that Lovato has repeatedly sought, hiding a chronic wound.
Alcohol, bulimia and s-xual abuse
The author of hits like Sorry Not Sorry and Heart Attack, she suffered, in a grimly paradoxical way, three heart attacks, a heart attack, pneumonia and multiple organ failure as a result of the overdose. She currently suffers from sequelae caused by brain damage, such as blind spots in her vision and the impossibility of driving.
The singer speaks openly about her past traumas, sometimes crying, but other times with the coldness of someone who has already exorcised her demons on a couch. She refers to the feelings her addicted, alcoholic, and aggressive father arouses in her with her mother. Patrick Lovato suffered from bipolar schizophrenia. Since his death, his daughter has been an advocate for mental illness.
Throughout the starkly honest documentary, she details her eating disorders from the age of eight, fostered by a childhood in which she participated in competitive beauty pageants, and extreme when she launched her musical career.
“There is so much pressure in the industry on women to have a certain look…”, she complains. The amount and on of confessions chokes the viewer with confidences about her lack of self-esteem with men and the s-xual abuse she has been subjected to. The last one from the dealer who procured her cocktail that almost took her to her grave.
"It is impressive and rare to see a pop superstar tell her story so authentically and without pretense. We have been privileged to present this intimate journey told with vulnerability. Demi Lovato's deep interest in mental health awareness is helping to change the landscape on a crucial issue in this year of national and international traumas and losses”, thanked the director of the Texan film festival, Janet Pierson.
The first two episodes of Dancing with the Devil are available for free on the Demi Lovato YouTube channel.
Two years later
The series features testimonials from close friends and relatives, both her social worker, her doctor and her head of security, as well as celebrities who show her respect for her and her concern: Will Ferrell, Christina Aguilera and Elton John. The latter does not go around with hot cloths: “Demi has opened up about her addictions, but the fact of recognizing them does not mean that you are cured, because you never do. You are addicted for life."
She talks about her psychologist, she talks about her family and her two best friends of hers. They all trust her. “The series can help talk about addiction and mental health in ways that haven't been done before. It is a personal story with universal potential”, exposed the director of the proposal, Michael D. Ratner, at SXSW.
Lovato is not hiding. She reveals that the night of his overdose was not the last night she used heroin or saw her dealer, and when asked since when has she not used drugs and alcohol, she admits to smoking marijuana and drinking recreationally. She eats in moderation, but she also indulges herself, without being subjected to a strict and distressing diet. He knows the toll he can pay in the media and among his fans, but it pays off: “The moment I woke up in the hospital, I knew I wanted to share my story and record a record to tell my fans the whole truth. As painful and uncomfortable as it may be at times, it will also benefit a lot of people.”
