Tove Lo
Tove Lo
Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson, better known by stage name Tove Lo, is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She was born and raised in Djursholm, a suburb north of Stockholm, where she graduated from musical magnet school Rytmus Musikergymnasiet. Lo formed the Swedish rock band Tremblebee in 2006. Following the disbanding of Tremblebee, Lo pursued a career in songwriting and earned a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music in 2011. Working with producers Alexander Kronlund, Max Martin and Xenomania, Lo became a...
NationalitySwedish
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth29 October 1987
CityDjursholm, Sweden
CountrySweden
It means a lot to everyone around me that I look good, and I don't think it should have to. I just think I should look the way I do.
It's OK to joke about yourself and have self-perspective, but, like, when you constantly put yourself down to get other people to tell you you're good, that annoys me. Have confidence!
The fact is, when you date an artist, you have to know that they're going to sing about you.
I started to use music almost like a therapist, where it's like, everything that I don't really dare to say or speak about, I can sing about.
I always loved performing and being on stage.
I've had to learn how to say no to things, and have people around me that don't push me too hard, because I'll go until I just crash. I don't have a stop button.
The very first song I ever wrote was a song called 'Crazy' when I was 11 or 12 with my best girlfriends - we had a girl band. It was about loving a guy who everyone else thought you were crazy for being into.
In the same way that I'm open when I speak, I'm that open on stage. I feed off the energy of the audience, too, so they're feeling what I'm feeling.
There are some nights where I don't get enough sleep, or we're traveling a lot. And then I'll go do a radio show, and the DJs are usually so energetic. And they're like, 'Why aren't you excited?' I say, 'I am excited. I'm just Swedish. This is my excited. I can't get to an American excitement level.'
There was this lynx at a zoo that was called Tove, and that I totally fell in love with. It was my dear godmother who decided to call me Tove Lo, after that lynx. It stuck.
I think there's always a bit of pain in everything that's ecstatic - relationships and love, they always come with pain.
I thought 'Twinkies' was just a word for 'cookies,' not a specific thing. They kind of scare me a little bit because they last forever.
A rock star is expected to act like a mess, sound like a mess and look like a mess. People don't expect you to show up on time and be a professional. But when you're a pop star, you have to do all that, look perfect and be a role model.
If you say, 'I listen to pop,' you picture this kind of perfect, colorful, polished song. I want to have that, but when you open it, you see this gritty dark - kind of like dancing your tears away. Disguise the sadness in a pop beat.