Tove Lo

Tove Lo packages love, sex, drugs and vengeance into pure dance-pop pleasure. Born Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson in 1987, the singer/songwriter grew up in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden, where she started writing songs at age 11, before attending music school Rytmus Musikergymnasiet. After a string of odd jobs and a stint in the alt-rock band Tremblebee, she adopted the moniker Tove Lo, a nickname coined by her godmother in reference to a lynx (“lo” in Swedish) that the young Tove fell in love with as a child. Lo soon scored a publishing deal, headed into the studio with producer extraordinaire Max Martin, and started a career as a songwriter for artists like Icona Pop and Ellie Goulding. But it was her own moody material that would push her into the spotlight, starting with 2013’s “Habits (Stay High)”, a riveting peek into Lo’s dark, hedonistic journey through a breakup. This theme has come to dominate the Swedish provocateur’s throbbing electro-pop anthems, but not without all the lust, sizzle and seduction that comes before a split—as first documented on her 2014 debut album, Queen of the Clouds. Since, she’s continued to give us nothing but real talk: “My music is kind of my journal now—my outlet,” she told Apple Music. As a result, her dance-floor confessions are as raw and revelatory (“True Disaster”) as they are hot and heavy (“disco t**s”), and her list of credits and collaborations—with Kylie Minogue, Charli XCX, Flume, Coldplay and more—keeps on growing.