Fans of Demi Lovato woke up on Sept. 30 to a surprise. “Music is always there for me…song in the am,” she tweeted in the early hours, and the 28-year-old singer made good on her word. Demi released “Still Have Me,” her first single since her collaboration with producer/DJ Marshmello and the first since she and ex-fiancé Max Ehrich called off their engagement. “I’m a mess and I’m still broken / But I’m finding my way back
And it feels like someone’s stolen,” she sings in the song. “All the light I ever had / Like the world disappeared.”
“Everything Around Me Shattered / All the Highs are now just lows / But it doesn’t matter / cause I’d rather be alone,” she adds. While the powerful song swells. In the track, Demi paints her life as in ruin, but despite all of this, she still has her resolve to make it through and come out the other side.
Music is always there for me… pic.twitter.com/I77rrfFj8r
— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) September 30, 2020
This new song arrives on the heels of Max, 29, and Demi called it quits after a six-month relationship, one that saw the Young and the Restless star pop the question. Demi and Max, according to PEOPLE, made the “tough decision” to “go their separate ways to focus on their respective careers.” Hours after this breakup news broke, Queer Eye star Tan France shared a video of Demi on his Instagram Page. In the clip, Demi was smiling, laughing, and playing for the camera.
Music is always there for me… song in the am
— Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) September 30, 2020
Demi or Max didn’t issue a joint statement on the split, but he did post a few Instagram Stories that seemingly shed light on how things went down. “Imagine finding out to(sic) the status of your relationship through a tabloid,” he wrote. “…while your(sic) int he middle of filming a biopic movie about a Pastor in a Christian Church whose intention of the film is to help people. God bless. [dove emoji.]” Max has been working on Southern Gospel, a film that IMDB describes as, “When a rock n roll star’s life comes crashing down, he must fight his past demons to realize his childhood ambition of becoming a preacher.”
The former couple announced their engagement on Instagram in late July. In the now-deleted posts, Demi wrote, “When I was a little girl, my birth dad always called me his ‘little partner’ – something that might’ve sounded strange without his southern cowboy like accent. To me, it made perfect sense. And today, that word makes perfect sense again, but today I’m officially going to be someone else’s partner.”
Before their breakup, Demi was forced to publicly defend Max after he was called out over some alleged social media posts where he fawned over celebrities like Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, and Miley Cyrus. Demi denounced these as “FAKE images” that were put together to pit “women against each other.”
Though Demi’s love life has had its ups and downs this year, 2020 has been a positive year for her professionally. Demi released “Anyone” in January, her first song since suffering a near-fatal drug overdose in July 2018. She debuted the song during the 62nd Grammy Awards and released it to streaming services the same day. She performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl 54 in February, and in March, she put out “I Love Me.” The self-love anthem was accompanied by a music video that seemingly referenced her previous engagement to Wilmer Valderrama. Demi joined Sam Smith in April for their song, “I’m Ready,” and in September, she teamed with Marshmello for “OK Not to Be OK,” a song released on World Suicide Prevent Day in partnership with Hope For The Day’s suicide prevention movement.