Demi Lovato’s comeback after rocky decade in spotlight

Demi Lovato is finally making her way back to the spotlight.

The 27-year-old uber talented singer teased new music on her Instagram this week, and is also set to star in a new Netflix movie with Will Ferrell called Eurovision, marking her first acting role since 2013.

She is also set to guest star in the final season of the Will & Grace revival.

It’s a welcomed comeback for Lovato’s adoring fans (76 million of them on Instagram alone), following a rocky decade in the spotlight.

Lovato’s first big breakout role happened when she was 16, after she scored the job-of-a-lifetime playing Joe Jonas’ on-screen love interest in the Disney Channel movie, Camp Rock, which she portrayed the leading lady, Mitchie Torres.
 

It was a massive hit, and made Lovato an immediate star, the teen scoring her own Disney series Sonny with a Chance off the back of Camp Rock’s success in 2008.

But it would only take two short years after her star exploded for Lovato to check into rehab for the first time in 2010, at the age of 18.

At this point, she had already been abusing cocaine for a year.

Her first admission to rehab came after a shocking incident during the Disney tour for Camp Rock 2, the hugely-anticipated sequel to the musical hit, in which Lovato physically attacked one of her backup dancers, before apologising and citing “physical and emotional issues” that stemmed from “anorexia, bulimia, and cutting”.
 

She had to withdraw from the Jonas Brothers Live in Concert tour that year to undergo treatment, which she did so for several months at the Timerline Knolls centre in the US.

LOVATO ‘SMUGGLED COCAINE ON PLANES’

Despite describing her time in the rehabilitation centre as eye-opening, Lovato secretly became even more reliant on cocaine in the year after her rehab stint in 2011, to the point where she smuggled the drug onto a plane because she couldn’t survive half an hour without it. At this stage, she had also been diagnosed with bipolar.

Lovato further admitted to taking soda bottles filled vodka for early morning flights because she feared being sober on the plane.

“I lived fast and I was going to die young … I didn’t think I would make it to 21,” she added to American Way in 2016.
 

In March 2012, MTV aired a documentary, Demi Lovato: Stay Strong, about her recovery, the star discussing her time in rehab and claiming she was sober at the time. Lovato later admitted to being under the influence of cocaine during that interview.

She stated: “I wasn’t working my program. I wasn’t ready to get sober. I was sneaking it on planes, sneaking it in bathrooms, sneaking it throughout the night. Nobody knew.”

Not long after that, her management team threatened to leave her, forcing Lovato to start treatment again and get counselling for her addictions.

She moved into a sober-living facility in LA with roommates and responsibilities, and managed the incredible feat of staying sober for six years.

SUPERSTAR CAREER REVIVAL

In May 2012, Lovato became a judge and mentor for the second season of the US version of The X Factor, with a reported salary of $US1 million, and joining Britney Spears, Simon Cowell, and L.A. Reid. She was embraced on the show, and returned for its third season, with her pay cheque reportedly doubling.

Lovato’s fourth studio album, Demi, was released mid-2013. It was a huge success, debuting at number three in the US and was the highest selling debut week of Lovato’s discography.

She also starred in a guest role on the series-of-the-minute, Glee, playing Dani, a struggling New York-based artist who befriends Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera), in which she appeared from 2013 to 2014.
 

Lovato then announced her Neon Lights Tour in late 2013, which began the following February, while also releasing a cover of Oscar-winning song, Let It Go, from Disney’s Frozen.

In 2015, she released her well-received fifth studio album, Confident. On top of that, Lovato launched her own skincare line, Devonne by Demi.

Lovato was also very open about her past struggles with a string of mental illnesses, including her body positivity issues, and was seen as an inspiration for women.
 

This saw her included in Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in 2017.

She was going from strength to strength.

HORRIFYING RELAPSE

Out of nowhere, Lovato released a worrying song called Sober in June 2018, seemingly her way of admitting to her fans she had relapsed.

To the ones who never left me / We’ve been down this road before / I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore

Only a month later, news broke Lovato had been rushed to the hospital after reportedly overdosing on heroin.

Law enforcement officials told TMZ at the time the Los Angeles Police Department responded to a medical emergency in Hollywood Hills where Lovato lived.

They said they found her unconscious and treated her with Narcan, a medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses, before moving her to the local hospital.
 

The songstress broke her silence two weeks after the incident, writing in a since-deleted Instagram post, “I want to thank God for keeping me alive and well. I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction.

“What I’ve learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet.”

In December that year, Lovato said there had been some incorrect reporting about what happened to her, but wasn’t ready to share the true story.

“If I feel like the world needs to know something, I will tell them MYSELF … I am sober and grateful to be alive and taking care of ME,” she said. “Someday I’ll tell the world what exactly happened.”

AN EPIC COMEBACK

In May this year, Lovato revealed that she had signed with a new manager, Scooter Braun, the manger-to-the-stars who also looks after megastars Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.

On Instagram, she said she “couldn’t be happier, inspired and excited to begin this next chapter”.

On Friday, Lovato said that the next time we hear from her, she’ll “be singing”, sending her fans into a frenzy.

She is also filming the comedy Eurovision, a Netflix original movie, directed by David Dobkin and based on the iconic singing competition.

Lovato is set to star alongside industry veterans Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams.

She has also been posting photos on set with the cast of Will & Grace, saying she was “honoured to be a apart of this cast”.

As if it couldn’t get any better, Lovato has also debuted a new romance, with a man named Austin Wilson, who is a model living in California.