Melon Cake

Album: Dancing With The Devil... the Art of Starting Over (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Demi Lovato recalls how her old management team used to control her diet and limit her sugar intake.

    Where the cat and mouse tried to make me
    Barbie sized and I obliged


    Lovato wasn't even allowed to treat herself on her birthday. Her people gave her watermelons covered in fat-free whipped cream in lieu of an actual cake.

    The chorus finds Lovato asserting her independence as she waves goodbye to the healthy but boring fare.

    And now I'm sayin' no more melon cakes on birthdays.
    No more barricades in doorways
    Finally get to do things my way
  • Demi Lovato recorded "Melon Cake" for Dancing with the Devil... the Art of Starting Over, which includes several tracks that detail her 2018 descent into drug addiction and near-fatal overdose.

    Lovato explained in a 2020 interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show how her struggles with her controlling management team contributed to her July 2018 drug overdose. Unhappy at the extreme measures they took to control what she ate, the songstress relapsed after six years of soberness.
  • Lovato teamed up with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter to write the song. Michaels and Tranter also co-penned three other Dancing With The Devil tracks: "The Way You Don't Look at Me," "The Kind of Lover I Am" and "Good Place." Other hit tunes on their joint resume include Justin Bieber's "Sorry," Hailee Steinfeld's "Love Myself," and Selena Gomez' "Lose You to Love Me."
  • The Hannah Lux Davis-directed video is a kaleidoscopic, colorful feast. Lovato released the visual on August 20, 2021 for her 29th birthday, saying: "The song is me saying goodbye to melon cake. It was a big step for me, and I wanted to celebrate it."

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