Demi Lovato wasn’t OK for a while, as we know. And we know because she’s been candid about relapse and recovery, about her mental health issues. For many people, speaking openly about their personal struggles helps to address shame and stigma; Demi continues to take this approach now that she is coming back into the spotlight with several new projects. She has a role in the upcoming Eurovision, starring Rachel McAdams and Will Ferrell. She’s also dropping a new single and video tonight called “I Love Me” (NEW MUSIC SEASON!!!) and she has a talk show on the way with Quibi.
Ah, Quibi.
Every day, it seems, there’s yet another announcement about yet another celebrity working with Quibi, which launches April 6. (Full disclosure, I work for Bell, the company that just announced a deal with Quibi in Canada.) So we’re a month from launch and the question a lot of people have is still… what IS Quibi?
Quibi is short for “quick bites”. It’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman and in addition to all their celebrity content, they’ve already secured $2 billion in funding. Every major Hollywood studio has invested in the platform for “short form stories” (most videos run from 6-9 minutes) released daily. Chrissy Teigen’s doing a show, Chance The Rapper is rebooting Punk’d, Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz are in a drama together, so there’s scripted and unscripted content and apparently Quibi’s also differentiating itself on ownership from other streaming services because artists have claim to their projects – it doesn’t just belong to Quibi, which is one of the reasons why stars are so attracted to it.
That said, given the expectations, they’re still working on awareness and creating, like, a thirst for it. And all of that depends on the content. Chrissy’s Court, for example, which is exactly what it sounds like, is going to have to get people talking. Same goes for Chance’s Punk’d. They’re looking to and hoping for a viral build to get people to buy in. I’m very curious to see how it plays out in April.
As for Demi, she’s on Ellen today talking about having an eating disorder and her relapse, getting specific about how important it is now for her to have a team around her that understands her condition – and remember, this happened to her about two years ago not thirty years ago, and this kind of sh-t is still happening in the industry: food shaming, food restrictions, body pressure, body policing. That’s not to say that Demi is deflecting and blaming. She’s simply describing the environment in which she was suffering and is clear that she made bad choices and is now prepared to make better ones. And release a new song! “I Love Me” sounds like a bop!