It’s the time of year typical 16-year-olds plan their summer trips.
By JOHN J. MOSER
It’s the time of year typical 16-year-olds plan their summer trips.
So it’s no surprise that’s precisely what singer Demi Lovato is doing. But for Lovato, it will be quite a jaunt: 43 cities nationwide (including Cleveland July 27 and Pittsburgh July 28), on her first headlining tour, which started Sunday.
But Lovato is anything but typical.
Rather, she seems on the verge of stardom not unlike the Jonas Brothers, with whom she starred in the Disney Channel movie “Camp Rock” last year. They also co-wrote songs on her debut album.
That album, last summer’s “Don’t Forget,” hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Top 200, and a new disc, “Here We Go Again,” comes out July 21 (its title track was released Wednesday).
Later this year, she films a “Camp Rock” sequel — she recorded songs for it last week. And another Disney Channel movie, “Princess Protection Program,” with best friend and fellow Disney star Selena Gomez, premieres at 8 tonight.
And of course, Lovato also stars in Disney Channel’s “Sonny with a Chance,” the No. 1 rated TV show for ages 6 to 11.
All of that doesn’t mean Lovato doesn’t do things other 16-year-olds do, she says in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where she lives. For example, she says, she dates (“definitely!”) — though after a suspiciously long pause says it’s not any of the Jonas Brothers. And she has her driver’s permit and “will get my license in, like, two months,” she says.
“It’s pretty insane, you know?” she says. “But I’m just managing personal life with work and learning how to do that, and it’s great. I love doing my job.”
Lovato began that job at age 6 with two seasons on the children’s TV series “Barney & Friends,” then had roles before landing the lead in Disney Channel’s “As the Bell Rings” in 2007.
“That summer, I auditioned for ‘Camp Rock’ and ‘Sonny With a Chance’ in the same week — actually in the same day,” she says. “And, well, they just called me back and I booked them both, and then I just got to shooting it.”
But it was early the next year, when she signed with the Jonas Brothers’ management, that her career hit hyperdrive.
“I went to LA for a photo shoot for three days.” she says. There, she says, Kevin Jonas Sr. signed her with the Jonas Group and “by the end of the week I had a stylist, I was doing a photo shoot, I was getting ready for my album, I was writing, and then they shipped me off, like, for two weeks to go tour with the Jonas Brothers and write songs with them,” she says, laughing.
“So what was supposed to be only two days turned into the rest of my life.”
When “Camp Rock” came out a year ago, Lovato already was back on the Jonas tour and readying her own album.
“I really wanted to establish myself as a musician, not just the girl from ‘Camp Rock,’” she says.
Lovato says she started writing songs with the Jonases while filming “Camp Rock” in Canada, and continued when it came time to record her debut album.
“I really just wasn’t prepared to basically like poop out an entire album by myself,” she says, laughing. “So I wrote it with them and they helped me. They obviously knew the situation, and then we got on the bus one night — songs just started pouring out.”
Despite her disc’s success — it had four Top 30 Hot Digital singles — she concedes it was “very Jonas,” and says she “branched out” on the new disc.
“I feel like this is my album,” she says. “It was great having the Jonas Brothers help me. But with this one, I sound a little bit more like what’s coming from my heart. It’s more me.”
She also collaborated with John Mayer, William Beckett of The Academy and Toby Gad, who worked with Beyonce and Fergie.
Lovato admits she’s concerned about sounding too adult and alienating her core audience of ’tween girls.
“I could say, [deepens her voice] ‘Oh, I don’t want to do any pop music, I’m going to go, like, totally rock or totally soulful,’” she says. But “it’s not what my fans want right now, it’s not what I want right now. I listen to a lot of really mature music, but it’s not what I want to sing when I’m on stage. I’m a teenager. I want to rock out, I want to have fun. That stuff’s for when I’m older.”