GRAMMY-nominated Demi Lovato reunites with her pop roots in a dazzling burst of freedom, desire, and clarity, trading rock’s grit for pop gloss once again – but this time, she’s in full control of the wheel. With her ninth album on the rise, Lovato reclaims the dancefloor on “Fast,” leaving the past in the rear view and ascending her pop throne with purpose, poise, and pure velocity.
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Stream: “Fast” – Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato isn’t making a comeback; it’s a controlled detonation.
Pop isn’t dead – she just put it in sport mode with “Fast,” a high-octane track that signals both liberation and reinvention from one of the genre’s most resilient voices.
Demi Lovato has always moved in extremes. From Disney darling to rock renegade, rehab survivor to tabloid mainstay, her trajectory has never quite settled. She’s worn vulnerability like armor and strength like silk, never afraid to shape-shift and often demanding it. Now, in a move that feels both nostalgic and radically new, she’s back in the pop arena with a maximalist dance-floor anthem that doubles as a declaration of freedom.
I’m not so sure I’ve ever felt like this before
I can’t deny, it feels so right
I must confess, already got me so obsessed
Is that alright? Is that alright?
‘Cause baby, honestly
I just wanna feel your hands all over me
Right where they wanna be
Even if it’s only for tonight
Released August 1st via Island Records, “Fast” revives the electricity of Lovato’s early 2010s chart-dominance while side-stepping the sonic safety of mere throwback. Instead, the song functions as a re-entry, one that gleams with self-possession, reinvention, and the kind of clarity that can only come after chaos.
For longtime fans, this return to pop might read as surprising, even ironic. It wasn’t long ago that Lovato held a tongue-in-cheek “funeral” for her pop music, following the abrasive, unflinchingly raw HOLY FVCK (2022) and REVAMPED (2023), an album that reimagined her sugary hits as gritty rock bangers. That phase wasn’t just aesthetic, it was an exorcism. It allowed Lovato to tear down the scaffolding of her public image and rebuild something harder, stranger, more honest. But now, she’s pivoted again.
What’s remarkable about “Fast” is that it doesn’t feel like a retreat from that honesty. Rather, it’s an integration.
Lovato isn’t returning to pop as the bright-eyed girl of Confident (2015) or Tell Me You Love Me (2017). She’s entering it with the scars visible, the edges intact. Her voice, ever the powerhouse, sounds unburdened. There’s less of the pained vibrato that marked her ballads, more glide in her upper register. When she sings about speed, it’s not just about getting away; it’s about control.
At its core, “Fast” is about movement. Produced by Zhone, whose credentials include glossy, propulsive work with Kylie Minogue and Troye Sivan, the track wastes no time with preamble. From the jump, it pulses forward on a high-octane synth line, tightly wound percussion, and glistening layers of electro-pop shimmer. The beat is club-ready but never faceless. It carries attitude, sleekness, and precision, like a sports car on a neon-lit motorway.
Lovato leans into a sense of urgency in the lyrics, “I wanna go fast / I wanna go hard / I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are.” It’s a refrain built for liberation, echoing the kind of anthemic longing that’s always underpinned her biggest hits. But here, it’s refined, less tangled in emotional melodrama than in earlier efforts. There’s a simplicity to her desire, which paradoxically makes it feel more profound. She isn’t asking for love to save her. She’s demanding the wheel.
I wanna go
I wanna go fast, I wanna go hard
I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are
No matter how close, no matter how far
I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are
I wanna go fast, I wanna go hard
I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are
No matter how close, no matter how far
I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are
Fans of “Cool for the Summer” will hear echoes in the euphoric synth work. There’s also a brush of Robyn-esque melancholia beneath the gloss, and nods to the queer-leaning, body-liberating pop of Jessie Ware or Slayyyter.
But Lovato doesn’t lean too hard on any one reference point. If anything, the track’s greatest strength is its refusal to apologize for being fun. After years of heaviness, in sound, subject, and life, it’s refreshing to hear her dance again, without the burden of deeper meaning dragging behind her.
May I suggest we go somewhere a little less
Full of eyes? Don’t be shy
In the accompanying music visual, a Daniel Sachon-directed video, we see Lovato emerge, sleek, steady, sovereign. It shows Lovato in a series of controlled environments, mirrors, studio spaces, and carefully staged frames. There’s an eerie absence of chaos. No crashing cars, no spirals, no breakdowns. This Lovato doesn’t flinch. She stares down the lens with surgical calm, acknowledging the viewer once, almost as if to say, “You’re here on my time now.”
‘Cause baby, honestly
I just wanna feel your hands
all over me
(Over and over)
Right where they wanna be
Even if it’s only for tonight
Serving as the lead-off lightning bolt from her upcoming ninth album, “Fast” is a clear signal: The Demi Lovato we once danced with is back, and she’s brought her evolution with her.
With a production pedigree that nods to the best of sleek modern pop, the track moves like a drag race between euphoria and empowerment. It’s catchy, but not shallow. Nostalgic, but not stuck. “Fast” hints at liberation through velocity, a sonic exhale after years of artistic excavation. After her gritty rock turns and introspective reworks, this feels like a celebration. Not of return, but of reinvention.
In many ways, “Fast” is the sound of an artist returning to herself. Not the self that was sold to us, but the one she’s been quietly crafting behind the headlines. It’s thrilling, polished, and entirely hers.
I wanna go fast, go fast
Go fast, go fast, go fast
I wanna go fast, I wanna go hard
I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are
No matter how close, no matter how far
I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are
I wanna go fast, I wanna go hard
I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are (Ooh)
No matter how close, no matter how far
I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are
I wanna go fast, real fast
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Stream: “Fast” – Demi Lovato
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© Daniel Sachon
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