“Grapefruit” by Tove Lo, Tuesday, April 18, 2023 (Trigger Warning: Eating Disorders)

I was first introduced to Tove Lo when the Swedish singer appeared on Coldplay's colorful, ebullient record, A Headful of Dreams. The track five duet "Fun" is one of the more subdued tracks on the record. Given that my mom and even my grand-mother love A Headful of Dreams,  I assumed that Tove Lo was also a "safe for mom" artist. It turns out that Tove Lo is a pretty sexual artist, known for flashing her breasts in concert, which to be fair, isn't as big of a deal for her European audiences.

WILL MY OBSESSION PLEASE DIE.  Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson, better known as Tove Lo, released her fifth record, Dirt Femme,  last year. Unlike her previous records, Lo released Dirt Femme independently on her own label, Pretty Swede Records. The album deals with the singer's growth over the years and her marriage to Charlie Twaddle. But the liberated singer lays down some ground rules for her marriage in the second track, "Suburbia," in which she Lo says, "No fake grass, no fake friends . . . . I don't want suburbia . . . I can't be no Stepford wife." Tove Lo has been vocal about her views on marriage, and now a non-traditional view on marriage--Lo spoke with Zach Sang about how she and her husband choose to share a house with friends, living communally rather than isolated from her husband. One subject, though, Tove has never discussed in her music is an eating disorder she had as a teen when she dealt with bulimia. The memories of her eating disorder were triggered when the singer took a role in a Swedish film and had to lose a few kilos for that role.  The singer told AppleMusic: "I went on a diet for the first time in 10 years and it triggered so many memories—the obsession, the anxiety, being hungry all the time." She wondered, "Can I do this without falling back into old patterns"? She goes on to say, "In the end, I did it and it was fine. To me, it felt like validation that I’d healed."

BODY POSITIVITY. The fun retro sounds of "Grapefruit" are certainly a bonus to this song about a serious issue. While, Tove Lo wrote the song claiming victory, even though the song doesn't resolve the issue, many people still struggle with issues of body image. Of course, this problem isn't new, with many famous examples of people who struggle with eating disorders. Singer Karen Carpenter died of anorexia nervosa in 1983 during the height of her career. According to The Bulimia Project, 1 in 5 deaths from anorexia nervosa are suicide. Mental health is a big factor in eating disorders, and that may be a reason for body dysmorphia. Today's song mentions body positivity, which is a term that, according to BodyPositve.org, the term began in the mid-90s to stand in solidarity with those suffering from HIV. The term is linked to the Fat Rights Movement in the 1960s and its two following waves in the 1990s and the 2010s to the present. Now we hear terms like body shaming and fat shaming in online and offline discourse. I think it's great that we're giving ourselves language to be okay with our bodies in their natural state. Fat shaming was severe in the '90s when I was growing up. But now even in fitness communities, we're starting to realize that one person's measurements don't fit another. But even though we have language of acceptance, we still see hot bodies on TV and many of us want to look better. So we join the gym and count calories. But competing with the gym is the latest from Nabisco, in a new limited edition flavor. With some Easter candy left over and that new frap from Starbucks, it gets impossible to lose weight. So we get into this back and forth between our tongue and our abs.

Read the lyrics on Genius.