After a hiatus, she released her seventh and eighth albums Dancing with the Devil... the Art of Starting Over (2021) and Holy Fvck (2022), which respectively reached numbers two and seven in the US; the latter marked a return to rock-influenced music.

[11] Her father was of Nuevomexicano descent, with mostly Spanish and Native American ancestors, and came from a family that had been living in New Mexico for generations; he also had distant Portuguese and Jewish ancestry.

[46] Its lead single, "Get Back", was praised for its pop rock style and peaked at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100, also selling over 560,000 copies in the United States.

[56] Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times described Lovato's acting ability as "very good", comparing her favorably to Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus.

[101] The album's second and final single, "Give Your Heart a Break", was released on January 23, 2012, and later peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 16, making Lovato's fourth highest-charting song to that point.

[109] At the Minnesota State Fair in August, Lovato announced that after a pre-show performance at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards[110] she would release a single by December.

[104] The third and fourth singles from Demi, "Neon Lights" and "Really Don't Care", both peaked in the top forty of the US, and at number one in the country's Dance Club Songs chart.

She played Dani, a struggling New York-based artist who befriends Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) and interacts with fellow newcomer Adam Lambert's character.

[141] In November 2014, she opened the UK shows on Enrique Iglesias' Sex and Love Tour[142] and worked with longtime friend Nick Jonas on the song "Avalanche" from his self-titled album.

[147] The song attracted attention for its bi-curious theme,[148] and was a commercial success, peaking at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100,[149] and reached the top ten in the United Kingdom and New Zealand,[150] and was certified triple-platinum by the RIAA.

[174] In February 2017, Lovato executive-produced a documentary, Beyond Silence, which follows three individuals and their experiences with mental illnesses including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety.

Later in the month, after teasing that she had been working on a new project, Lovato revealed her return to television with a recurring guest role in the final season of the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, where she played Will's surrogate.

[219] The series, titled Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, was directed by Michael D. Ratner and showcased her personal and musical journey over the past three years.

[232] Consisting of ten-minute episodes, it features candid, unfiltered conversations between Lovato and both expert and celebrity guests, exploring topics such as activism, body positivity, gender identity, sex, relationships, social media, and wellness.

[256] In the following months, she continued to release rock versions of her previous hits, "Cool for the Summer" and "Sorry Not Sorry" (the latter featuring guitarist Slash), with a "darker sound backed by electric guitars and grittier lyric delivery from Lovato.

[266] On August 4, the fourth remix of the song "Eve, Psyche & the Bluebeard's Wife" by South Korean girl group Le Sserafim was released, which featured Lovato.

[273][274] Lovato executive produced and hosted A Very Demi Holiday Special, which featured multiple celebrity guest appearances and premiered on December 8, 2023, on Roku.

[289] Lovato has frequently cited "power vocalists" such as Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Whitney Houston, and Aretha Franklin as major musical and vocal influences.

"[300] In her teens, Lovato listened to heavy metal music,[301] including bands such as the Devil Wears Prada, Job for a Cowboy, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and Bring Me the Horizon.

"[314] In a review of the Neon Lights Tour, Mike Wass from Idolator remarked "you don't need shiny distractions when you can belt out songs like Demi and connect with the crowd on such an emotional level".

[353] It was reported[354] that she decided to enter treatment after punching backup dancer Alex Welch; her family and management team convinced her that she needed help.

[362] In January 2013, it was reported that Lovato had been living in a sober-living facility in Los Angeles for over a year because she felt it was the best way to avoid returning to her addiction and eating disorder.

[365][367][368] After her management team had expressed their intentions to leave her, Lovato agreed to resume treatment and counseling for her addiction, leading to her move to a sober-living facility in Los Angeles with roommates and responsibilities to help her overcome her drug and alcohol problems.

[365][368] Although she had previously stated that she was entirely done with hard drugs such as heroin, Lovato revealed in March 2021 that she was not completely sober; she drank alcohol and smoked marijuana in moderation at that point, a choice that many of her friends openly disagreed with.

"[384] Lovato addressed the matter during a 2020 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, elaborating on how her worsened struggles with bulimia in 2018 contributed to her eventual drug overdose as she relapsed three months prior to the incident due to being extremely unhappy.

Lovato stated she did not acknowledge the act as rape at the time, because sexual activity was not normalized to her, and she was part of the Disney crowd who wore purity rings and were waiting until marriage.

[404] In a 2017 interview with Dolly magazine, she explained that "Feminism ... doesn't have to mean burning bras and hating men" but instead "standing up for gender equality and trying to empower our youth.

[422] In March 2017, as a celebration of her five-year anniversary of sobriety, Lovato donated money to Los Angeles-based charities specializing in animal, LGBT, and adoption rights.

[438] Since 2017, Lovato has released activewear collections with the women's athleisure brand Fabletics to raise money for organizations such as United Nations Foundation's Girl Up campaign and COVID-19 relief efforts.

[447] The same month, she became Gaia, Inc.'s first celebrity ambassador;[448] this endorsement attracted criticism from fans and the media due to the contents of the platform, which are widely described as promoting conspiracy theories.