Demi Lovato teases her return to pop music with preview of 'Fast' single: 'Told y'all i've been cooking'

Demi Lovato is ready to return to pop.

The 32-year-old singer has hinted at her return to dance-pop music with a series of videos posted to her TikTok over the last week. Lovato’s most recent video, shared on Monday, shows her in a recording studio playfully “resurrecting” her pop-heavy sound.

“My pop music coming back to life after we had a funeral for it,” reads text on Lovato’s video.

The “funeral” Lovato is referring to took place in January 2022, when the singer hosted “a funeral for my pop music” with music executives from Island Records, including Scooter Braun, her manager at the time. Dressed in all black with her middle fingers to the camera, Lovato seemingly bid adieu to her once signature pop sound. She released her rock album Holy Fvck in August of that year.

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Hours before posting her latest video on TikTok, Lovato shared a series of photos on Instagram, which showcase her in the studio recording new music. The carousel of images marked Lovato’s fifth post since she completely wiped her feed clean. The Instagram overhaul, as many fans are familiar, is typically a telltale sign that something big is coming for an artist — and that a new musical era is on the way. In Lovato’s case, however, it seems the singer is returning to form — and to her pop powerhouse roots.

In a handful of videos posted to TikTok in the last week, Lovato dropped previews of her song “Fast,” her forthcoming, dance-pop single and first solo release in three years.

One video shows Lovato lip-syncing to the track’s lyrics. Over a pop-infused, heavy house-like beat, Lovato sings defiantly, “Cuz baby honestly/ I just wanna feel your hands all over me (over and over)/ Right where they wanna be/ Even if it’s only for tonight,” as the camera anticipates her every move.

Another video, with the caption, “told y’all i’ve been cooking,” shows Lovato in the vocal booth as a new snippet of “Fast” plays.

“I wanna go fast/ I wanna go hard/ I wanna go anywhere, anywhere you are,” Lovato sings.

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Lovato’s ninth studio album is reportedly in its final stages. The forthcoming album, a source close to former Disney Channel star told Rolling Stone, sees the singer wholeheartedly embracing the vigorous, electronic sound of some of her biggest pop hits. Following her recent marriage to Jordan “Jutes” Lutes in May, Lovato appears to have turned a new page in life and is ready to embrace the parts of herself that she, and her fans, have long loved. What she’s pulling together, added the source, is a “celebratory dance-pop album.”

“Over the past few years, Demi has found love, joy, and newfound confidence, making the choice to approach life with much more lightness and fun,” the source told Rolling Stone. “She took this sentiment into the studio, which can be felt in every track on this celebratory dance-pop album.”

Also featured in Lovato’s latest TikTok is music producer Zhone, who is responsible for bringing tracks like “Joyride” by Kesha and “Rush” by Troye Sivan to life. Lovato tapped Zhone to executive produce her new album.

Zhone told Rolling Stone of working with Lovato, “It’s been so inspiring working with Demi and experiencing her journey of continued leveling up. She is such a master in the studio. This album is about letting inhibitions go, and we had so much fun making this music! It really comes across throughout.”

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Before teasing her lead single “Fast” and the accompanying sound of her upcoming album, Lovato, during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, revealed that she was “working on new music” but was admittedly still trying to pinpoint her sound.

“I’m kind of figuring out my sound right now,” Lovato said in September 2024. “I tend to write from the place that I am in, in the moment. … It’s actually been like, it’s been amazing. I’ve been writing just nothing but, like, love songs and like sexy songs ’cause I’m just in this, like, really good place. And so it feels good to be able to write coming from that place.”