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Demi Lovato recreates overdose aftermath in new 'Dancing With The Devil' video

Watch: Demi Lovato recreates overdose aftermath in new 'Dancing With The Devil' video

Do not press play on Demi Lovato's brand new "Dancing With The Devil" music video until you have at least one tissue nearby. 

Just...don't.

The video, directed by Lovato and Michael D. Ratner and produced by Ratner's OBB Pictures in partnership with SB Films, is described as "a true story by Demi Lovato." And it's exactly that, in the rawest way. The single's (released last Friday) lyrics are vivid enough on their own, detailing what was running through her mind leading up to her near-fatal overdose in 2018, but the visuals truly take viewers into Lovato's downfall. The 28-year-old reenacts the horrifying spiral scene-for-scene. 

We begin with a zoomed-in shot on the tube sewn into Lovato's neck—used to take all the blood from her body, clean it of all toxins, then pump it back in—before she is shown laying in the hospital bed with black bags under her eyes. The first verse speaks about Lovato relapsing after six years of sobriety in April 2018 with red wine before going to a party that night and tried meth for the first time, and the we see that unfolding on screen as a zoned-out Lovato goes through the motions.

The narrative oscillates between the hospital room and the events that put her there. She's texting her former drug dealer, who supplied her with the fentanyl-laced heroin in the early-morning hours of July 24, 2018, before leaving her. Soon, medical professionals are checking Lovato for signs of life. 

"I was dancing with the devil, out of control," the two-time Grammy nominee booms in her signature powerful voice during the chorus. "Almost made it to Heaven / It was closer than you know / Playing with the enemy, gambling with my soul / It's so hard to say no / When you're dancing with the devil."

Lovato awakes and cries because she can't see her sister, Madison, at her bedside. The video ends with a nurse giving her a sponge bath, revealing "survivor" inked on her neck where the tube was previously sewn, and Lovato leaving the hospital.

The source material has been discussed in much more excruciating, nuanced detail through YouTube Originals documentary series Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, also directed by Ratner and produced by OBB. To get the total picture, watch the first three episodes below:

The fourth and final installment of the doc will arrive Tuesday (April 6).

Simultaneous with the video drop, Lovato's seventh studio album Dancing With The Devil...The Art of Starting Over arrived at midnight. The 19-track project is her first full-length work since 2017's Tell Me You Love Me and includes featured vocals from Ariana Grande, Noah Cyrus and Saweetie.

More must-reads:

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