Lyric BreakdownDemi Lovato Sings About Max Ehrich Split on ‘Dancing With the Devil … The Art of Starting Over’

‘Anyone’

Written before her 2018 overdose, Demi explained that the lyrics were “a cry for help.”

“You listen back to it and you kind of think, how did nobody listen to this song and think, ‘Let’s help this girl.’ You know what I’m saying?” she said during an Apple Music interview from January 2020. “I think that I was recording it in a state of mind where I felt like I was OK, but clearly I wasn’t.

‘Dancing With the Devil’

The songstress details her overdose within this song. “I don’t censor my substance use in ‘Dancing With the Devil.’ I don’t hold back from that, so I don’t want to hold back from any other place in my authenticity, you know?” she told EW about the title track.

‘I.C.U. (Madison’s Lullabye)’

In Demi’s documentary, she details waking up blind after her overdose and not being able to see her sister, Madison De La Garza. This song is all about being able to “see” her sister now.

‘The Art of Starting Over’

Acting as her comeback song, this track kicks off Demi’s changed life.

‘Lonely People’

She appears to be singing about learning to love herself before giving her heart to a significant other.

‘The Way You Don’t Look at Me’

This meaningful song details Demi’s struggle with her eating disorder over the years.

‘Melon Cake’

Appearing to also talk about her eating disorder, the title seems to reference a past interview Demi did in March 2020 where she talked about eating a “watermelon cake.”

“You cut your watermelon into the shape of a cake and then you put fat-free whip cream on top and that was your cake,” she said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show at the time.

‘Met Him Last Night’ featuring Ariana Grande

“I played her ‘Dancing With the Devil’ and she was really, really excited about that and she came up with this concept … And when she played it for me, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely! I would love to do this,'” Demi gushed on YouTube prior to her album’s release.

‘What Other People Say’ featuring Sam Fischer

“This song is a reflection on what it’s like to lose who you truly are in an effort to please other people and society,” Demi told Genius.

‘Carefully’

“This is a song about wanting to be loved — but wanting it to be done carefully. It’s kind of self-explanatory, but it’s really about offering yourself up to somebody,” she explained on Apple Music. “One of my favorite lyrics in the song is ‘I could be your favorite dream/Baby, nobody can love you like I do.’ It’s so simple but it’s powerful, and I don’t have a favorite dream, so it’d be nice to find that.”

‘The Kind of Lover I Am’

Demi described this track as something “I’m going to play people if we start dating so they can get a sense of who I am.”

‘Easy’ featuring Noah Cyrus

The talented duo appears to sing about lying to themselves in order to make a breakup easier.

’15 Minutes’

“15 Minutes” appears to detail Demi’s split with Max after their two-month engagement.

‘My Girlfriends Are My Boyfriend’ featuring Saweetie

“It’s such a great song and definitely an anthem for anyone who has just gone through a breakup,” the songstress gushed during an Apple Music interview.

‘California Sober’

While chatting about her album with Apple Music, Demi explained, “I wrote this song to try and explain that sometimes recovery is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and in my case, it looks a little different than maybe other people’s journeys. But it’s working for me, and this song explains why. I hope people can listen to it from a place of curiosity and understanding and compassion. I hope they can try to respect my truth the same way I respect other people’s truths.”

‘Mad World’

The brunette beauty wanted to cover this song after hearing it during a trip to Big Bear, California, she said in her Apple Music interview.

‘Butterfly’

Demi explained to Apple Music that she wrote this track about her “birth dad.”

“I always had a complicated relationship with him, and I felt like it was in his death that we actually grew closest. I had more compassion and understanding for who he was, and came to understand why he couldn’t show up for me the way that I had always wanted him to,” she recalled. “When a butterfly came right up to my finger on Father’s Day last year, around the anniversary of his passing, I knew I had to write a song about it.”

‘Good Place’

Concluding her album, Demi promises listeners that she’s at a “good place.”

“I hope people listen to this album and hear the struggles, but also come to a happy ending,” she told Apple Music. “Maybe this song can help them find the happy ending in their own journeys.”