The 2020 Grammy Awards marked Demi Lovato’s first return to the stage more than a year following her near-fatal overdose.
The evening saw her give a seriously moving performance of her single “Anyone,” which has been widely praised by many. For many, it was a huge moment – but none more so than for Demi.
Reflecting on the momentous occasion, Demi told CBS This Sunday, “I didn’t know if I’d ever step foot on a stage again. When I woke up at the hospital and I was like, ‘I don’t know the full extent of the damage that’s been done,’ ” she said. “I hadn’t tried singing yet.”
“Anyone” was written just before her OD, and during the song’s debut performance, Demi actually got quite choked up after the first few lyrics and ended up having to start over. Powering through the emotional song passionately, she earned a standing ovation from the crowd.
Demi has performed on several stages since – she performed the National Anthem at the Super Bowl LIV, performed “Commander in Chief” at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards in October, and covered Bill Withers’s “Lovely Day” at the presidential inauguration celebration earlier this year.
The 28-year-old singer is grateful to be able to return to the stage at all. Her near-fatal 2018 overdose has affected her in so many ways and left lasting effects she continues to suffer from today.
Opening up about that fateful night, Demi revealed, “I had three strokes. I had a heart attack. My doctors said that I had five to 10 more minutes [to live],” in her upcoming documentary special Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil.
Fortunately, she was able to pull through – however, the brain damage she sustained during her stroked has affected her vision.
“I don’t drive a car because I have blind spots in my vision,” Demi revealed during the virtual Television Critics Association press tour. “For a long time, [I] had a really hard time reading. Reading was a big deal when I was able to read out of a book, which was two months later because my vision was so blurry, I dealt with a lot of the repercussions and I think they are kind of still there to remind me of what could happen if I ever get into a dark place again.”
However, she chooses to be “grateful for those reminders,” which were part of what led to her personal awakening.
“But I’m so grateful that I’m someone who didn’t have to do a lot of rehabbing,” she added. “The rehabbing came in the emotional side and the therapeutic side internally. I did a lot of work after that, just not physical.”
Reflected on her journey to recovery, she shared, “I wouldn’t change a thing because everything had to happen in order for me to learn the lessons that I learned.”
“It was a painful journey. I look back and sometimes I get sad that I had to endure to overcome what I have, but I don’t regret anything,” Demi continued. “And I’m so proud of the person I am today and I’m so proud that people get to see it in this documentary. And I couldn’t be more grateful to have someone by my side [director Michael D. Ratner] to help me do this.”
