Demi Lovato (feat. Ariana Grande)
“Met Him Last Night”
WIMITLA. SONG REVIEW
By Kenneth Tse
I saw a caption on social media today that read: “Twitter Is Going Crazy For This Demi and Ariana collab!” My immediate question is, where? Lord knows that any song by Demi Lovato would’ve done wonders back in 2015. But the industry sound has changed drastically since; and unfortunately, Demi’s hasn’t. I want to make it clear, too, that this critique is being made with the utmost respect for the artist; she will surely go down as one of the great hitmakers of all time. But if we take a quick look at her past year of releases, there see an unmistakable trend: Sam Smith, Marshmello, and now Ariana Grande. I’m sad to say that we’ve reached the “collabs” era of Demi Lovato.
It’s a period where, in a fight to maintain their cultural relevance, an artist will team up with the most “hip” of the current batch. Not only did she miss on every one of those releases, but seeing as she’s just made it through another tough period of her life, I know that she’s probably hurting from the recent feedback. Unfortunately, “Met Him Last Night” made her situation even more imminent. The song has a dangerously basic hook, reminiscent of a first-year music student’s mid-term project. It puzzles me why, if she had the opportunity to collaborate with Ariana, she wouldn’t make sure it’s a hit.
I will say that Grande does her best to save the song, though. The artist’s textbook runs are signature to her sound and give the latter half of the release a bit of pizazz. Unfortunately, it provides zero balance to what was supposed to be a clear attempt at virality. And so, I’ll go where no one dares to go: “Met Him Last Night” is by far the dullest collab in Lovato’s catalog – and that’s including 2008’s “You’re My Only Shawty (feat. Iyaz).”
The last thing I want to do here is upset The Lovatics in the crowd, and I’m sure that this will be taken in the wrong light. Every artist has a point where their time at the top starts to fizzle out. We are there. 3.7/10