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Not a great look...
By Kurtis Condra — Written on Aug 22, 2022
Demi Lovato is in their prime right now. Her new album just dropped, the reviews are raving, and they seem to be thriving in their personal life too after a long battle with addiction.
But as fans revel in Lovato's new period of growth and transformation, it's hard not to remember some of the star's more questionable moments.
Here are 8 of Demi Lovato's biggest controversies.
1. We shouldn't call space aliens... aliens.
The singer, who came out as nonbinary in 2021 decided to extend their activism to outer space by voicing her dislike for the word alien.
"I think that we have to stop calling them aliens because aliens is a derogatory term for anything. That's why I like to call them E.T.s!"
The comment drew backlash from critics who pointed out that the word is only derogatory when it is used to refer to undocumented immigrants. Lovato's choice to defend actual aliens betrayed their ignorance to the plight of immigrants.
2. She sort of ruined Zendaya's Barbie reveal moment.
When Barbie announced they were making a Zendaya-inspired doll to match her appearance at the 2015 Academy Awards, it was a dream come true for the star and for many other dreadlock-wearing women of color. But Lovato didn't seem to like this idea.
"Hey @Barbie, what about a curvy doll or one with true-to-size measurements? I'll model!!" Lovato wrote in a now-deleted tweet.
Fans of Zendaya didn't take kindly to this, saying Lovato's tweet was ill-timed as it was taking attention away from Zendaya's moment.
While Lovato had the right idea, her timing was awful since Barbie were already pushing toward diversifying their representation by making a Zendaya doll.
3. She criticized Taylor Swift during Kesha's legal battle with Dr. Luke.
When Taylor Swift showed her support to Kesha by donating $250,000 in support of her ongoing legal battle against Dr. Luke Lovato, saw this as a hands-off approach and went on the offensive, attacking Swift in a series of tweets.
As reported by E! News, fans of Swift defended their star and called Lovato out for her "hate" towards Swift, but Lovato defended themselves, saying in a lengthy tweet,
"How the f--k am I making this about myself? At least I'm talking about it. Not everyone has 250k to just give to people. Would love to, but I didn't grow up with money, and def haven't made as much as her."
She made it clear she was not disrespecting Swift but wished Swift would have a more hands-on approach instead.
4. Their sexual assault prank on their bodyguard.
In 2018, Lovato tweeted about a prank she pulled on her bodyguard which allegedly resulted in him getting touched without his consent.
"I hired a lady of the night in Vegas and sent her to Max's hotel room to surprise him," they tweeted in a now-deleted post.
"She walked into his room without permission and grabbed him in his 'area' and he freaked the f--- out hahahahaha."
Fans were quick to call out the singer for making a mockery of a rather serious incident.
They went on to apologize, but after deleting the tweet, she wrote, "I could tweet something about craving jelly beans and it would offend someone."
5. She was accused of using Breonna Taylor as a "scapegoat."
As reported by Insider, Lovato came under criticism from her fans after she told people to stop focusing on purported screenshots of her fiance Max Ehrich's old social media posts and instead focus on Breonna Taylor.
The now-deleted screenshots claimed they were from Ehrich's social media and were directed towards Lovato's childhood friend Selena Gomez in a flirtatious manner. Lovato began dating Ehrich in 2020 but ended the relationship only two months after their engagement.
She called the images "fake" and released a statement saying to stop focusing on them and focus on Taylor instead.
Fans thought it was inappropriate of her to include Taylor's name in a statement defending their fiance, but Lovato has been a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, and some of their fans pointed out they have used their platform to spread awareness too.
6. She criticized Lollapalooza crowds during COVID 19, only to perform at an unmasked concert a week later.
The Lollapalooza event in August of 2021 was a huge moment for many, but it showed shoulder-to-shoulder crowds of unmasked people which caused concern for a super spreading event. Lovato was not too happy about this posting to her Instagram, shaming the people there.
As reported by Buzzfeed, she captioned her story with the crowd picture, "C'MON YALL!!! THERE IS STILL A PANDEMIC HAPPENING!!!" and while she was correct, she kind of ate her own words a week later after making a special guest appearance at the Sad Summer festival in Anaheim.
Many of Lovato's fans saw the hypocrisy, and while it wasn't a big show compared to the 100,000 people at Lollapalooza, they still called them out for their criticism of the event.
"I'm a big demi lovato fan but how are they gonna criticize Lollapalooza and attend an all time low concern less than a week later?"
7. Her big feud with a frozen yogurt place for its "harmful messaging."
In April of 20201, Lovato called out a small business, The Bigg Chill, in an Instagram message saying, "finding it extremely hard to order Froyo from @TheBiggChillOfficial when you have to walk past tons of sugar-free cookies/other diet foods before you get to the counter.”
Lovato also shared direct messages with the company who soon went on the defense, saying, "We carry items for Diabetics, Celiac disease, Vegan and of course have many indulgent items as well.” TMZ later acquired the messages and saw that Lovato was almost acting like a bully.
"You don't want to mess with me," one of her messages reads, and even dropping "the customer is always right" onto them.
Lovato later doubled down by stating that the ordeal had triggered her but did apologize for coming across as though they were trying to destroy a small business.
Kurtis Condra covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics for YourTango. He is also a poet based in San Francisco, California. You can keep up with his poetic journey on Instagram.