Working with producers Alexander Kronlund, Max Martin, and Xenomania, she became a successful songwriter, while also recording and releasing her own compositions independently.

It spawned the sleeper hit single "Habits (Stay High)", which peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as "Talking Body".

Her follow-up records, Blue Lips (2017) and Sunshine Kitty (2019), also performed well, the latter spawning the song "Glad He's Gone", which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music Video.

She has collaborated with many artists, including Charli XCX, Alesso, Broods, Flume, Nick Jonas, Seven Lions, Urban Cone, Kylie Minogue, Nelly Furtado and Coldplay.

[11][9] In 2012, she collaborated with British production team Xenomania and Swedish producer Alexander Kronlund,[26] co-writing Girls Aloud's "Something New", Icona Pop's "We Got the World" and tracks for the duo's self-titled debut album.

[33] Thanks to the strength of her online following, and the popularity of "Habits", Universal Music offered Lo a recording deal,[20] releasing her first single, "Out of Mind" in October 2013.

[8][25][35] Lo then shifted her focus to an international singing career, earning critical acclaim for her first live shows in London and during South by Southwest in the United States.

[41] It debuted at number 14 on the US Billboard 200, selling 19,000 copies in its first week,[42] and received a Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2016.

[25][51] She wrote, produced and recorded the song "Scream My Name" for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 film soundtrack released that month.

[25][51] The 2014 album releases of Cher Lloyd's Sorry I'm Late,[25] Lea Michele's Louder,[20] and Zara Larsson's 1 featured tracks co-written by Lo.

[70] In the same month, she appeared as a featured artist on Nick Jonas's "Close", the lead single from his third studio album Last Year Was Complicated.

[92] Six days later, it was announced that she would be opening for Coldplay on their A Head Full of Dreams Tour across Europe, the United States, and Canada from June to October 2017.

[99] She was later featured on "Out of My Head", the lead single from English singer Charli XCX's fourth mixtape Pop 2, released in December of that year.

[100] On 7 June 2018, Lo released a remix of "Bitches" featuring XCX, Alma, Icona Pop and Elliphant as the second single from Blue Lips.

[108] In March 2020, Lo released an English cover of Veronica Maggio's song "Jag kommer" in partnership with Spotify for their It's Hits playlist.

[citation needed] In May 2020 she released the Paw Prints Edition of Sunshine Kitty, a reissued version featuring 8 new songs including "Bikini Porn", her cover of "Jag kommer", and new single "sadder badder cooler".

[110] In July 2020 she released a contest where six fans could join her on her Animal Crossing: New Horizons island for a special DJ set by creating an outfit for their villager, with the best getting invited to the performance.

[120] On 14 October 2022, she officially released Dirt Femme through Pretty Swede Records with overarching themes of body positivity, femininity, and addressing the "fears of losing herself".

[6][138] Described as "the world's most brutally honest pop star" by Alex Panisch of Out,[3] Lo uses songwriting as a means of therapy for subjects she avoids speaking about.

[13] Dubbed "the saddest girl in Sweden",[3] Lo admits that her lyrics are predominantly sad because she is "useless" at writing tracks with a happier tone.

[8] Her lyrics have been noted to make subjects that are generally relegated to the genres of punk and hip hop more accessible in a pop framework.

[25] Her second studio album, Lady Wood, talks about "different kinds of rushes in life" and is divided into two chapters, "Fairy Dust" and "Fire Fade".

[141] The singer's third studio record, Blue Lips, is a sequel to Lady Wood and is split into two chapters: "Light Beams" and "Pitch Black".

[2] Discussing the process of writing for other artists, the singer told Paste that she avoids drawing from her own experiences so that the songs do not become personal.

[15]Lo grew up idolising Courtney Love and was inspired by grunge culture and the polarising lyrics of her music and her band, Hole.

[6][8][22] While in high school, Lo developed a passion for pop music and songwriting, influenced mainly by the output of Swedish singers Robyn and Lykke Li.

[140] She says the simplicity and quirky lyrics of French singer Charlotte Gainsbourg's album IRM (2009) is the main inspiration behind her career in music and said that it "opened a new world" for her sonically.

[16] An interview and profile of Tove Lo in W magazine in October 2016 referred to her as "openly bisexual", citing that as one of several identifiers "she once took for granted but are now very much part of her public persona.

[138] Lindsey Rhoades of The Village Voice writes, "Tove Lo rocks a specific brand that veers slightly from most other women in pop—she paints herself as the hard-drinking, hard-drugging, DTF party girl, admitting the somewhat destructive nature of these preoccupations but celebrating them all the same.

[157][160] Lo also believes she receives these kinds of comments due to gender double standards,[161] adding that: "I felt like I was getting asked all these questions because I'm a girl.