Demi Lovato announces new album, Dancing With the Devil… The Art of Starting Over, is coming in April

Demi Lovato’s getting ready to put on her dancing shoes.

Lovato’s new album, Dancing With the Devil… The Art of Starting Over, will drop on April 2, the singer announced during a Monday night Clubhouse livestream.

“It really does follow the course of my life and the path it’s taken over the past few years,” she told the Clubhouse audience, which topped out at 7,000 participants during the 75-minute event.

Lovato says the album, with its 19 songs and 3 bonus tracks, is the unofficial soundtrack to her documentary that’s premiering at the SXSW Film Festival on Tuesday. The four-part Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil follows the singer as she struggles with addiction and suffers a 2018 overdose that led to three strokes and a heart attack.

“The documentary is something that I poured my heart and soul into. I wanted my fans to get the first-hand accounts from not just me but the people who were there,” she said on the livestream. “I’ve had so much to say over the past two years wanting to set the record straight about what it was that happened.”

The documentary also influenced the name of her album, which was originally titled The Artist Starting Over. But she wanted to include songs representing a darker time in her life as well as her optimism as she moved forward.

The album’s third track, “I.C.U.,” is particularly emotional for Lovato as it recalls her waking up in the hospital following her stroke and discovering that her eyesight had been affected, leaving her unable to recognize her sister.

“I wrote the song to let my sister know I’m always there for her.”

Lovato also teased three different collaborations with “three different, incredible women” on the album, as well as her first-ever album interlude.

The documentary, meanwhile, has no performances in it, only snippets of her singing. But that’s fine with Lovato, who wanted to use the documentary to tell the story of a time that changed her life for the better.

“Every aspect of who I am has personality now because I have a better insight into who I am and what I want out of life,” she said, pointing to her short hair, her colorful new home, and her new openness about her sexuality as examples of living her truth.

Lovato also discussed her dislike of the idea of role models, which carries with it unattainable expectations.

“Nobody can really learn from role models except how to be perfect, and that’s not realistic. We have to learn how to be human, how to accept our mistakes and take ownership for them,” she said. “That’s why I love the term ‘real model.'”

As a “real model,” she’s especially excited for people to reach the fourth episode of the documentary.

“It’s the happy ending to an intense ride,” she said.

Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil will be available to stream on YouTube beginning March 23.