F-WOOP, WOOP, WOOP!
Another day without a lover, the more Demetria Lovato comes to understand the touch of her hand. (And also her Fabletics!)
After refusing to fall in line alongside her big sister in SAY!-nging Legendtina earlier in the week, the “Cool For The Summer” chanteuse is simultaneously teaming up with the seemingly unstoppable UK hit-making electronic-meets-classical dance-pop force that is Clean Bandit, responsible for everything from the world-dominating “Rather Be” with Jess Glynne to “Disconnect” with Marina Diamandis to “Symphony” with Zara Larsson.
Co-written by the group’s own Grace Chatto and Jack Patterson, as well as Fred Gibson and Camille Purcell (of The Saturdays “What About Us” fame, among others), the song might be sung by Demi, but it’s all about Grace’s recent rough split. (She and bandmate Jack broke up after a decade on and off together at the end of 2016 – but that hasn’t stopped the group from soldiering ahead, anyway.)
“I’ve been going through a difficult break-up for a long time and the message is you can’t just replace an ex-partner with someone else. You have to be strong in yourself. I’ve never been through a break-up like this before…I was always the type of person who would go straight into another relationship,” she told the London Evening Standard.
As for what’s been getting her through it? “Exercise, yoga, seeing friends, doing things that you love. The worst way is anesthetizing with alcohol.” (#Relatable, truly.)
Demi – well, Grace really – is blue, and sulking in the shadows of the dance floor. “Since you’ve been gone, I’ve been dancing on my own,” she admits, name-checking two of the best solo empowerment bangers in pop in the process.
Oh, and she’s sexually frustrated to boot: “Baby, you’re the only one I’m coming for…” What else is a girl to do but take matters into her own hands? If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an amen?
“I wanna f–WOOP WOOP WOOP, but I’m brokenhearted / Cr-cr-cry since the day we parted / Tuh-tuh-touch, but I got nobody / So I do it solo…”
That chorus is, as several other outlets have pointed out, reminiscent of Rita Ora‘s brilliant, similarly stutter-ific 2017 smash “Anywhere,” which is a wonderful thing – and a bit of Britney‘s “Mannequin,” too. (“Cry-cry-cry again…“)
With those seductive, Latin-tinged strings and a chorus firmly stu-stu-stuck on repeat, the song’s got summer smash-ah written all over, and rightfully so: after serving up her bicurious, cherry-tasting banger a few years ago (which actually performed pretty well, but just barely missed going Top 10 in the US – an injustice), she ought to sail to the top of the charts worldwide in 2018 alongside Grace Chatto and company.
“Solo” was released on May 18. (iTunes)
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Photo credit: Island Records / Rita Zimmermann