- Demi Lovato's new song "29" appears to criticize large age gaps in relationships.
- Fans speculate the song references Lovato's relationship with Wilmer Valderrama.
TikTokers are using clips from Demi Lovato's new song "29" to call out relationships with significant age gaps.
Lovato first teased the song on TikTok on August 9, showcasing the chorus featuring the lyrics, "Finally 29 / Funny, just like you were at the time / Thought it was a teenage dream, just a fantasy / But was it yours or was it mine? / 17, 29."
The video received 3.9 million views, and fans speculated the song was about Lovato's six-year relationship with actor Wilmer Valderrama. He was 29 when he first met 17-year-old Lovato and began dating her when she was 18. Lovato has not addressed the rumors, and representatives for Valderrama declined to comment.
The song has spawned some women to come forward about the "predatory" relationships they were in as teens.
TikTok user @nopenotagain2000 posted a video with on-screen text reading, "Anybody else listen to this song and realized you are groomed by older men, but you thought it was cool as a teen that a older man digged you?"
She went on to say she was 18 when she met a man who was 29 and he later told her she was "getting a little old for him" when she turned 20. The video has over 82,000 views.
@nopenotagain2000 #29 #demilovato #grooming #ReTokforNature ♬ 29 - Demi Lovato
Another video posted by TikTok user @theythemthatb showed her lip-syncing to "29" while on-screen text described dating a 22-year-old when she had just turned 18, which she described as "predatory."
A video with nearly 20,000 views posted by @phantasticarmy, which included photos of what appears to be the user and a man whose face has been obscured, also used the song. On-screen text suggested she was 17 when she met the man, who was 39 at the time.
Several other videos have been posted using the song, many of which feature young women labeling their teenage relationships as "predatory" due to how much older the men they dated were.
In a recent interview with the E! News "Rundown Show" on Snapchat, Lovato was asked whether she believed that when it comes to dating "age is just a number," to which they responded, "Not anymore."
"I finally dated people my age and it was a nice fit," she said. "I think it can be, it can be just a number, but I guess it just all depends on how much life experience you both have."
Lovato rose to fame for her role as Mitchie in Disney's "Camp Rock" movies and has released seven studio albums. More recently, Lovato starred in the UFO exploration series "Unidentified." Her latest album, "Holy Fvck," is set to be released on August 19.
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