The first single from Demi Lovato‘s new “celebratory dance-pop” era is set to be released this Friday. On Monday, the pop queen officially announced that she’ll drop “Fast,” her long-teased track produced by Zhone, at the end of this week.
Leading up to the official release date announcement, Lovato has been sharing snippets from the new single, which will kick off a new era for the star, who focused on rock-leaning music for her last two albums, Revamped and Holy Fvck.
“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,” a source said about the new era last week. “She took this sentiment into the studio, which can be felt in every track.”
On her Instagram stories on Monday, Lovato shared clips from her newly posted carousel, alongside the captions, “A new era has arrived,” and “I know I shouldn’t have kept you waiting… but I’m here now.” Side note: Pop fans quickly noticed that the second caption seemed to reference lyrics from Britney Spears’ “Break the Ice.” They also pointed to a recent newsletter subject line, which read “I must confess,” which aligns with lyrics from Spears’ “Oops… I Did It Again.” It’s unclear what the correlation might be.
The track was written for Lovato’s new Hulu documentary, Child Star, which arrives on September 17.
“Working on Child Star was a deeply reflective experience for me,” Lovato explained in a statement [via Rolling Stone]. “It allowed me to deep dive into emotions from my childhood, while also connecting with others who had so many shared experiences.
“As we were editing the film, I became very inspired to write a song. The idea of connecting with my younger self through the pain and hardships that came along with child stardom was so important to me. I wrote the song as a letter to my inner child, and I hope that it can give others an opportunity to connect with their inner child as well.”
Lovato co-directed Child Star, marking her directorial debut. The film explores the experience of being famous at a young age and having to grow up in public, and sees Lovato sit down with various former child stars like herself, including Drew Barrymore, Kenan Thompson, Christina Ricci, Raven-Symoné, JoJo Siwa, and Alyson Stoner.
