As Demi Lovato performed her new single “Sober” for the first time at Lisbon, Portugal’s Rock in Rio Festival June 24, she sang through tears. The song, released without warning three days earlier, is an emotional confession: After celebrating six years of sobriety in March, she had relapsed.
Lovato, 25, had been open about her struggles with drugs and alcohol in the past. In the October 2017 documentary Simply Complicated, she chronicled everything, from the first time she tried cocaine at age 17 to the time she punched a backup dancer who exposed her Adderall use during the Camp Rock 2 tour to her eventual sobriety.
After she relapsed, “Demi felt terrible about herself and was really depressed,” a source explains in the new issue of Us Weekly. Her new song helped her regain equilibrium.
“She honestly felt like she let her fans down and that she owed them the truth,” says another insider, adding that the singer is “back on track.”
Indeed, she’s focused on staying clean, says the first source. “She’s going to meetings again, going to the gym and taking care of herself.”
After the performance, Lovato wrote on Twitter, “Tonight I took the stage, a new person with a new life. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this journey. It will never be forgotten.” One day later, she shared an image of a new tattoo on Instagram. The ink, on the side of her pinky finger, reads, “free.”
For more on Lovato, pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now.
