Tove Lo may roar her way into 2020. The Swedish superstar’s “Glad He’s Gone” is up for Best Music Video at the 62nd Grammy Awards. Though the competition is fierce – Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” FKA twigs’ “Cellophane,” Gary Clack Jr.’s “This Land” and The Chemical Brothers’ “We’ve Got To Try” are also nominated – she has a secret weapon: her unflinching honesty. Known as a fearless songwriter, Tove has never shied from sharing both her triumphs and her failures in her music. In fact, her 2019 album, Sunshine Kitty, has been called her “most vulnerable writing” by Pitchfork. While some artists might struggle at exposing so much of themselves in their songs, for Tove, it’s second nature.
“I treat my music in general kind of as like a journal,” she said while talking EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife at the 2019 Footwear News Achievement Awards. “So, I think I’m always quite open and vulnerable, but I feel like this album I wrote from a happier place, which was kind of new and great. So, like a different kind of vulnerable.”
Speaking of being in a “happy place,” Tove said she experienced “pure happiness” after she found out that her video was nominated for a Grammy. “It was kind of like, ‘Is this a joke? Is someone messing with me?’ ” she told HollywoodLife. “But no, just pure happiness and so happy for everyone involved. My whole team pulled it off, and the directors. We put so much love and effort and time into this video, so that was a very special moment.”
There’s a special moment on Sunshine Kitty when two icons came together: Tove and Kylie Minogue. The “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” singer joined Tove on “Really Don’t Like U,” and she tells us that this was a collaboration that was years in the making.
“It was actually kind of me playing the long game,” she told us. “I met her at — we played the same charity event in Hong Kong, and she had tweeted me a couple of years before. So, I just asked if I could meet her. We met, and she was absolutely lovely. She just said like, ‘It’d be fun to do music together sometime,’ and I was like, ‘I’ll make it happen.’ ”
“So, I kind of had her in the back of my head. When I had a song where I felt like this is really something that she could kill and make hers and make amazing, I sent it to her just hoping for the best. She loved it and did an amazing job,” said Tove. As to when fans can see Tove perform “Really Don’t Like U,” “Glad He’s Gone,” and the rest of her hits, she says she’s hitting the road in 2020. Plus – she’s releasing more music in the coming months.
“I’m doing a headline tour next year all around the states and Europe,” she told us, “so I’m just getting into production rehearsal for that. I got some more exciting features coming out early next year. Yeah. There’ll be more music.”
Sunshine Kitty is out now. Tune in to the 62nd Grammy Awards on Jan. 26, 2020, to see if Tove takes home the gold for her video.