Demi Lovato has finally addressed the backlash that followed her performance of Heart Attack at an American Heart Association event, and wants everyone to know the song choice wasn’t hers.
Speaking on the Elvis Duran Show on Thursday, the 33-year-old set the record straight on what became one of the more discussed moments of the 2024 awards season.
“I want to say they asked me to sing that. Because I flagged that beforehand and was like ‘Um, isn’t this like not the vibe?'” she recalled.
The AHA, she said, pushed back and told her that fans would want to hear the track, so she went along with it, despite her reservations.
“And then of course people online are like, ‘Why did she sing that?’ I’m like y’all it wasn’t me, I flagged it!”
The performance took place at the AHA’s annual Go Red for Women Red Dress Collection Concert in 2024, an event dedicated to raising awareness about cardiovascular disease.
The eyebrows it raised were understandable.
Lovato suffered three strokes and a heart attack herself during a near-fatal overdose in 2018, making the song choice feel, to many onlookers, more than a little uncomfortable.
“Well that’s a bit dark, don’t you think?” one X user wrote at the time. “She didn’t think this one through,” added another.
But Lovato’s account is backed up by what was reported at the time.
A source told Page Six shortly after the performance that the AHA had actively encouraged the song selection, viewing it as an opportunity for Lovato to reclaim a track she had struggled to perform in the years following her overdose.
“For a few years, Demi thought she would not be able to sing Heart Attack,” the insider explained, adding that the night allowed her to take ownership of it again.
