Award-winning performer and Grammy-nominated songwriter Tove Lo crafts raw, confessional pop shaped by her love of grunge and the pristine sounds of her Swedish homeland. The way her 2013 single ‘Habits (Stay High)’ swung between joy and despair and frankly depicted drug use and sex made it a distinctive, relatable, multi-platinum hit and a fitting introduction to her uncensored style. She followed it with more uninhibited, confessional music: Her 2014 debut album, Queen of the Clouds, and 2017’s BLUE LIPS upheld her reputation for confronting the darker side of love and relationships with thoughtful, provocative, and catchy songwriting. On 2019’s Sunshine Kitty, she took a slightly more lighthearted approach without losing any of her edge, while 2022’s Dirt Femme lended nuance to her concept of femininity. An in-demand collaborator, Lo worked with the likes of Coldplay, Charli XCX, and Nick Jonas; as a songwriter, her credits include songs for Lorde and Icona Pop, as well as Ellie Goulding’s Grammy-nominated hit ‘Love Me Like You Do.’ In 2024, she and SG Lewis teamed up for a joint EP, Heat.
Tove Lo was born Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson on October 29, 1987, in a suburb of Stockholm. When she was three, her godmother gave her the nickname Tove Lo after a lynx the young Nilsson loved at the local zoo (‘lo’ is Swedish for lynx). She began writing poetry and short stories at a young age, and had written her first songs by the time she was 11. While growing up, she was fascinated by the rawness of Courtney Love’s and Kurt Cobain’s music and by their relationship, and found inspiration in the work of Robyn, Lykke Li, Jeff Buckley, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. She went on to study at the famous Rytmus Musikergymnasiet — a music-oriented high school comparable to the U.K.’s BRIT School — where she befriended Caroline Hjelt, a future member of the duo Icona Pop. After graduation in 2006, Lo began making music with other Rytmus alumni in the math rock band Tremblebee. When the quintet broke up in 2009, Lo decided to focus on her own songs, spending six months in her shed studio recording her demo while working as a session singer.
At a party celebrating Icona Pop’s first record deal, she used the opportunity to give her demo to a staff member at their label, leading to a publishing deal with Warner Chappell and a trip to L.A. to work with fellow Swede and pop songwriting/production supremo Max Martin, who became a mentor and frequent collaborator. In October 2012, Lo self-released her debut single, ‘Love Ballad,’ a catchy, beat-driven pop track that showcased her powerful voice. It was followed in 2013 by ‘Habits (Stay High),’ a dark breakup anthem that generated such Internet buzz that it led to a deal with Universal. ‘Habits’ and its follow-up, ‘Out of Mind,’ which was in much the same vein, appeared on her debut EP for the label, Truth Serum, in 2014. The EP reached number 13 on the Swedish Albums Chart, while ‘Habits’ peaked at 13 on the Swedish Singles Chart and hit number six in the U.K. During this time, Lo also established herself as a songwriter, collaborating on tracks for Icona Pop and Victoria Justice.