Tove Lo: The Life Story Behind Sweden's Habits Star
In this post
Tove Lo sings about the parts of life that most pop stars hide. Her songs talk about bad habits, broken hearts, late nights, and the strange comfort of doing the wrong thing when you know better. She does not dress those feelings up in pretty words. She says them plainly, in a voice that can sound soft one moment and sharp the next, and that honesty is what made millions of listeners feel that she was singing about their own lives. When Habits (Stay High) reached radios around the world in 2013 and 2014, people who had never heard of a Swedish singer called Tove Lo suddenly knew her voice, and they knew the feeling in her songs.
She was born Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson in Stockholm, Sweden, and she grew up in a home where music and words mattered. As a young girl she wrote poems and short pieces, and she learned to play the piano. She was not a child who dreamed only of fame. She was a child who liked to put feelings into words, and that habit stayed with her. In her teenage years she began to write songs, and she found that a song could hold a feeling that was too messy for ordinary talk. That discovery shaped everything that came after.
Her path to fame was not a straight line. She wrote songs for other artists, she sang in a band, and she spent years learning how the music business worked from the inside. She did not become a star overnight, and when success came, it came with a song about staying high to forget a lost love. It was a strange way to become famous, and it was also a perfect introduction, because it told the world exactly who she was: a writer who would rather be honest than polite.
Growing Up in Stockholm
Tove Lo was born on 29 October 1987 in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Her full name is Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson, and the name Tove Lo came later, from a nickname she was given as a child. She grew up in the city, in a country where music is part of everyday life, and where many children learn an instrument at school. She learned the piano, and she spent time writing. Her family life was ordinary in many ways, and she has spoken about growing up in a safe and supportive home, which makes her later songs about risk and trouble all the more interesting, because they did not come from a hard childhood. They came from her own choices as a young adult.
At school she was a good student, but she was also a dreamer. She wrote poetry, and she liked the way words could sound when they were put together with care. She was not the loudest girl in the room, and she did not need to be. She watched people, she listened to how they talked about love and loss, and she stored those small details away. Later, when she wrote songs, those details came back. A line in one of her songs often sounds like something a real person said at three in the morning, and that is because she had learned to listen.
Music was always close by. Sweden has a long history of pop music, from ABBA to the writers behind many of the biggest songs in the world, and Tove Lo grew up inside that world. She heard pop songs on the radio, she learned how a chorus works, and she began to understand that a great pop song can say something true in three minutes. She did not want to write songs that sounded clever but meant nothing. She wanted to write songs that felt real, even when the truth was ugly.
Her teenage years were a time of trying things out. She sang, she wrote, and she began to think about music as a job rather than a hobby. She was not in a rush. She knew that a singer needs songs, and a writer needs life to write about. She spent those years gathering both. She went to school, she made friends, and she started to see the world beyond Stockholm. The city gave her a start, but her songs would soon travel far beyond it.
Learning to Write Songs for Others
Before she became famous as a singer, Tove Lo worked as a songwriter for other artists. This is a part of her story that many listeners do not know, and it matters, because it taught her how to build a song that works for someone else. She wrote for pop acts in Sweden and beyond, and she learned to work fast, to take notes, and to turn an idea into a finished song. Writing for others also taught her discipline. A song for another singer has to fit that singer, not the writer, and that is a hard skill to learn.
She also sang in a band called Tremblebee, which played a softer kind of pop rock. The band gave her stage experience, and it gave her a chance to see what it felt like to perform her own songs in front of a real audience. The band did not become famous, but it was a useful step. She learned how a band works, how rehearsals feel, and how a crowd reacts when a song is good. Those lessons stayed with her when she later stood alone on much bigger stages.
During these years she lived in Sweden and worked in the music scene around Stockholm. She met producers, writers, and other singers, and she built a small circle of people who believed in her work. She was not a star yet, and she did not act like one. She was a working writer, and she treated songwriting as a craft. She wrote many songs that were never released, and she learned from each one. A writer who only writes hits never learns as much as a writer who writes a hundred songs and keeps the best ten.
The turning point came when she began to write songs that were too personal to give away. She had always written honestly, but now the honesty became the point. She wrote about her own life, her own mistakes, and her own way of coping with pain. Those songs did not sound like songs written for someone else. They sounded like Tove Lo, and she began to understand that she would have to sing them herself. No other singer could carry them in the same way.
Habits and the Breakthrough
The song that changed her life was Habits, later known as Habits (Stay High). She wrote it about the time after a break-up, when a person tries to fill the empty space with drink, with company, and with anything that takes the pain away for a night. The words are blunt. They do not make the singer look good. They make her look human, and that was the point. The song was released in Sweden in 2013, and it began to spread. People shared it, radio stations played it, and listeners in other countries began to ask who this singer was.
The song reached a much wider audience in 2014, when a remix by the duo Hippie Sabotage became popular. The remix kept her voice and her words, but it gave the song a slower, heavier sound that worked well on radio and on streaming services. The song climbed the charts in the United States and in many other countries, and it became one of the biggest pop songs of the year. For a writer who had spent years in the background, it was a sudden and strange kind of fame. She was now known around the world for a song about her worst habits.
Her first album, Queen of the Clouds, was released in 2014. The title came from a line in one of her songs, and the album was built around the stages of a relationship, from the first meeting to the break-up and the time after. It included Habits, and it also included Talking Body, a song about physical attraction that became another hit. The album showed that she was not a one-song singer. She had a whole world of songs, and they all sounded like her. The album was praised for its honesty, and it gave her a real career as a recording artist.
Success brought new pressure. She was now touring, giving interviews, and being asked about the same songs again and again. She handled it by staying close to her writing. She kept working with the producers she trusted, and she kept writing about her own life. She did not try to become a different kind of pop star. She stayed the writer who had written Habits in the first place, and that choice kept her music honest when fame could easily have made it safe.
Lady Wood, Blue Lips, and a Bolder Sound
Her second album, Lady Wood, was released in 2016. The title was a play on words, and the album was bolder and darker than the first. It talked about desire, about power, and about the way a woman can be judged for the same behaviour that is praised in a man. The album included songs such as Cool Girl, which became a hit, and it showed that she was willing to take risks with her sound. She worked with electronic producers, and the music had a harder edge, but her voice and her words stayed at the centre.
Lady Wood was the first part of a two-part story. The second part, Blue Lips, was released in 2017, and it completed the story with songs about the other side of the same feelings. Together, the two albums showed a singer who was thinking in bigger shapes than one song at a time. She was building a world, and she wanted listeners to follow her through it. Not every listener followed, and not every song became a hit, but the albums earned her respect as an artist who cared about the work, not only about the charts.
During this time she also wrote songs for other major artists. Her most famous work as a writer for someone else was Love Me Like You Do, a song recorded by Ellie Goulding for the film Fifty Shades of Grey. The song became a huge hit around the world, and it showed that Tove Lo could write a big romantic song as well as a dark personal one. She also wrote for other pop singers, and her name as a writer became known in the music business. She was now both a star and a writer behind the stars, and she moved between those two roles with ease.
She toured widely in these years, playing festivals and her own shows in Europe, North America, and beyond. Her live shows were known for their energy, and for the way she connected with the crowd. She did not hide behind dancers or big sets. She sang, she moved, and she talked to the audience as if they were friends. That direct style made her shows feel close, even in a large room, and it helped her build a loyal group of fans who came back again and again.
Sunshine Kitty and Dirt Femme
In 2019 she released Sunshine Kitty, an album with a lighter and more playful sound. The title came from a nickname, and the album included songs such as Glad He’s Gone and Sweettalk My Heart. The music was brighter, and the songs were about friendship, about leaving a bad relationship, and about finding joy again. It was a change of mood after the darker albums, and it showed that she could write about happiness as well as pain. The album was well received, and it gave her new songs to play on tour.
Her next album, Dirt Femme, was released in 2022. The title was a play on the French words for a woman of the earth, and the album talked about womanhood, about the body, and about the way women are seen by the world. It included songs such as How Long and No One Dies from Love, and it was one of her most personal records. She wrote about growing older, about love that lasts, and about the freedom that comes from knowing yourself. The album showed a singer who had grown up in public, and who was now writing as a woman in her thirties, not as a young girl in her twenties.
Dirt Femme also showed how much she had learned about making records. The sound was rich, the songs were well built, and her voice sounded confident. She was no longer the new singer with one big hit. She was an artist with five albums, a long list of songs, and a clear voice of her own. She had survived the pressure of fame, the ups and downs of the charts, and the changes in pop music, and she was still making the music she wanted to make.
In the years after Dirt Femme she continued to tour and to release new music, including singles and collaborations with other artists. She also became a mother, and she has spoken about how that changed her life and her work. She did not stop making music, but she began to see her career in a new way. She had already proved that she could write hits. Now she was proving that she could keep going, on her own terms, for as long as she wanted.
The Honest Voice and the Cost of Fame
Tove Lo has always been open about the difficult parts of her life. She has spoken about anxiety, about the pressure of fame, and about the way she used drink and other things to cope when she was younger. She has not hidden these things, and she has not made them sound romantic. She has talked about them as real problems, and she has talked about learning to live in a healthier way. That openness has helped many listeners, because it tells them that a famous singer can struggle too, and that struggling does not make a person weak.
Her honesty has also brought criticism. Some people have said that her songs are too blunt, or that they talk too much about sex and drink. She has answered that criticism by saying that her songs are about real life, and that real life includes those things. She does not write for children, and she does not pretend that adult life is clean and simple. Her songs are for adults who know what it feels like to make a mistake, and who want to hear someone say it out loud.
Fame has changed her life in other ways too. She moved between Sweden and the United States, she worked with people from many countries, and she learned how to protect her private life. She is not a singer who shares everything on social media. She shares her music, and she keeps the rest for herself. That balance has helped her stay sane in a business that can be very loud. She has said that she needs quiet time to write, and that she needs her friends and family close by.
The cost of fame is real, but so is the reward. Her songs have been streamed billions of times, and they have reached people in countries she has never visited. She has won awards in Sweden, and she has been nominated for major awards in other countries. She has written songs for other stars, and she has built a career that does not depend on one hit. That is a rare thing in pop music, and it comes from the fact that she is a writer first and a star second.
What Her Story Leaves Behind
Tove Lo is still working, and her story is not finished. She continues to write, to record, and to perform, and she continues to find new listeners. Her early songs are still played, and her later albums have found their own audience. She has become a name that people trust when they want pop music that is honest, even when the honesty is hard to hear. That trust is the most valuable thing a singer can earn, and she earned it by telling the truth in her songs.
Her influence can be seen in the younger singers who write about their own lives without apology. She did not invent honest pop music, but she made it popular at a time when many pop songs were safe and polished. She showed that a song about a bad habit could be a hit, and that a singer could talk about desire without shame. That opened a door for other writers, and many of them have walked through it.
She also leaves a lesson about patience. She spent years writing for others before she sang her own songs. She spent years building her career, album by album, without rushing. She did not try to be famous at twenty, and she did not give up when the first album was done. She kept going, and that is why she is still here. Her career is a reminder that a slow start can lead to a long life in music, if the work is good and the writer is honest.
For listeners, her songs remain a place to go when life feels messy. They do not offer easy answers, and they do not pretend that everything will be fine. They offer company. They say that someone else has felt the same way, and that the feeling can be turned into a song. That is a small thing, and it is also a large thing, because it helps people feel less alone. Tove Lo built her career on that feeling, and it is still the heart of her music.
Her Swedish roots also shaped the way she works. Stockholm gave her a music scene where writers are respected, where studios are close together, and where a young writer can learn from people who have already written hits for the whole world. She took that training with her when she travelled, and she kept the habit of writing every day, even when she was tired from touring. A song does not arrive by magic. It arrives because a writer sits down, tries a line, throws it away, and tries again. Tove Lo has done that work for many years, and the size of her catalogue shows it. Her albums, her singles, and the songs she wrote for others add up to a body of work that is far bigger than one hit, and that is the real measure of her career.
My Take:
I think Tove Lo is one of the bravest pop writers of her time, and I do not say that lightly. Bravery in pop music is often talked about, but it usually means wearing a strange outfit or saying something shocking in an interview. Tove Lo is brave in a different way. She writes songs about the things she actually did, and she does not ask the listener to forgive her first. She sings about staying high to forget a break-up, about wanting someone she should not want, about the messy part of being young and free, and she lets the song sit there without a neat moral at the end. I admire that, because it is much harder to be honest than to be shocking. Shock is easy. Honesty takes work, and it takes a willingness to be judged.
When I listen to Habits (Stay High), I hear a song that should not have worked as a pop hit. The words are dark, the feeling is sad, and the singer is not asking for sympathy. She is telling the truth about how she coped, and the truth is not pretty. Yet millions of people loved it, and I think I know why. Almost everyone has had a time when they tried to fill a hole with something that did not really help. They stayed out too late, they drank too much, they called the wrong person, they did anything except sit still with the pain. Tove Lo put that feeling into a song, and when people heard it, they felt less alone. That is what a great pop song can do, and it is what this song does better than almost any other song I know.
I also admire the way she built her career before fame came. She wrote for other people, she sang in a band, she learned the craft, and she did not rush. That patience matters to me, because I have seen many young singers become famous too fast and then fall apart when the fame fades. Tove Lo did not become famous too fast. She became famous after she had already learned how to write a song, how to work in a studio, and how to stand on a stage. When the world finally noticed her, she was ready. That is not luck. That is preparation, and I think young writers should learn from it. If you want a long career, you have to do the quiet work first, when no one is watching.
Her second and third albums matter to me as well, because they show a writer who did not want to repeat herself. Lady Wood and Blue Lips are darker and stranger than Queen of the Clouds, and they did not sell as much as the first album. A safer singer would have tried to make Habits again and again, with a new title each time. Tove Lo did not do that. She made the albums she wanted to make, and she trusted her listeners to follow her. Some did, some did not, but she kept her artistic freedom, and that freedom is worth more than a few extra weeks on a chart. I respect a singer who chooses the work over the numbers, because the numbers fade, and the work stays.
I think about Love Me Like You Do a lot when I think about her. It is a beautiful song, and it became a huge hit for Ellie Goulding, but it was written by Tove Lo. It shows that she can write a grand romantic song as well as a dark personal one, and it shows that she does not need to be the singer to make a song great. She is a writer first, and that is a rare and valuable thing. Many pop stars can sing, but few can write songs that other stars want to sing. Tove Lo can do both, and that is why her career has lasted. She is not dependent on her own voice alone. She has a skill that the whole music business needs.
There is a part of her story that makes me sad, and I want to be honest about it. The honesty that made her famous also meant that people talked about her private life as if it belonged to them. They asked about her habits, about her relationships, about her body, and they judged her for the same things they praised in male singers. That double standard is real, and it is unfair. A man who sings about drink and desire is called a rock star. A woman who sings about the same things is called a bad example. Tove Lo has faced that judgement with calm, and she has kept writing, but it must have been tiring. I admire her for not letting it change her songs. She did not become quieter to please the critics. She stayed loud, and that takes strength.
I also think about her openness about anxiety and about the hard parts of fame. It is easy to look at a famous singer and think that she has everything, and it is easy to forget that fame can be lonely. She has spoken about feeling anxious, about needing time alone, and about learning to take better care of herself. I find that helpful, because it reminds me that success does not fix everything. A person can have hit songs and still feel anxious. A person can have fans all over the world and still need quiet and rest. Her willingness to say that out loud helps other people feel less ashamed of their own struggles, and that is a kind of kindness that does not get enough credit.
When I listen to Sunshine Kitty, I hear a different Tove Lo. The songs are lighter, the mood is warmer, and the singer sounds like someone who has learned to enjoy her life again. I like that change, because it shows growth. A writer who only writes about pain can get stuck, and a singer who only sings about the dark can become a prisoner of her own image. Tove Lo did not get stuck. She wrote about friendship, about leaving a bad relationship, about feeling glad and free, and she showed that she could write about happiness with the same skill she used to write about pain. That is growth, and it is something I admire in any artist.
Dirt Femme is the album that stays with me the most, because it is the work of a woman in her thirties writing about her own body and her own life without apology. She writes about womanhood, about ageing, about love that lasts, and about the freedom that comes from knowing who you are. Those are not easy things to write about, and they are not the things that pop music usually asks a woman to sing about. Pop music usually asks a woman to stay young, to stay pretty, and to stay quiet about the hard parts. Tove Lo refused that deal. She wrote about what it feels like to be a woman in the real world, and she did it with grace and with humour. I think that album will age well, because it is true in a way that a hit song about a summer romance is not.
I have a small criticism, and it is not really about her talent. It is about the way the music business treated her. She wrote one of the biggest songs of the decade, and yet she did not become as famous as some singers who had less talent and better timing. That is not her fault. It is the fault of a system that rewards the loudest and the most visible, not always the best. I wish more people knew her albums, not only her singles. I wish more people knew that she wrote Love Me Like You Do, and that she has a whole body of work that is worth hearing from start to finish. If I could change one thing, it would be that more listeners took the time to hear the albums, not just the hits.
Another thing I notice is how Swedish her story is, in the best way. Sweden has a long tradition of pop music that is both catchy and clever, and Tove Lo is part of that tradition. She grew up in a country where songwriting is taken seriously, where children learn music at school, and where a writer can make a living by writing good songs. That background gave her a start that many singers in other countries do not get. I think it is worth remembering, because it shows that a good music culture helps good writers grow. She did not come from nowhere. She came from a place that values music, and that matters.
For a young person who wants to write songs, I think her story teaches a clear lesson. Write what is true, even when it is messy. Do the quiet work before you ask for attention. Learn to write for others as well as for yourself, because that skill will keep you working when the spotlight moves on. Do not be afraid to change, and do not be afraid to grow up in public. Your first album is not your last album, and your best work may come later, when you have lived more and learned more. Tove Lo is proof of that. Her best work did not all come at the start. It came across a whole career, album by album, song by song.
I also think her story teaches something about friendship and loyalty. She has worked with the same producers and writers for many years, and she has kept her circle close. She did not chase every new trend, and she did not drop her friends when she became famous. That loyalty is rare in the music business, and it is part of why her music sounds so consistent. When you work with people you trust, you can be honest, and when you are honest, the music is better. I admire that, and I think it is a lesson for anyone who works in a creative job.
When I think about her future, I feel hopeful. She is still young, she is still writing, and she is still curious. She has become a mother, and that will change her songs in ways we cannot yet know. She may write about new things, she may try new sounds, and she may surprise us again. I hope she does. I hope she keeps making the music she wants to make, without worrying about whether it will be a hit. She has already proved that she can write hits. Now she can write whatever she likes, and that is the best place for an artist to be.
In the end, I think Tove Lo matters because she told the truth when it was easier to lie. Pop music is full of songs that pretend life is simple, that love is easy, and that every night ends well. Her songs say something different. They say that life is messy, that love hurts, that people make mistakes, and that it is possible to survive those mistakes and keep going. That message is not glamorous, but it is real, and it has helped many people. I am glad she wrote those songs, and I am glad she kept writing. Her story is not finished, and I look forward to hearing what she writes next.
One last thing I keep coming back to is the sound of her voice. It is not a huge voice, and it does not try to be. It is a voice that sounds close, like someone talking to you in a quiet room, and that closeness is what makes her songs work. When she sings about a break-up, you believe her, because she sounds like she has lived it. When she sings about joy, you believe her too, because the joy sounds earned, not borrowed. Many singers have bigger voices, and many have more hits, but few have a voice that feels this honest. That honesty is her gift, and it is why I will keep listening, album after album, to see where it takes her next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where was Tove Lo born and what is her real name?
Tove Lo was born Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson on 29 October 1987 in Stockholm, Sweden. The name Tove Lo came from a childhood nickname, and she has used it as her stage name throughout her career as a singer and songwriter.
What is Tove Lo best known for?
She is best known for her hit song Habits (Stay High), which became a worldwide success in 2013 and 2014. She is also known for her first album Queen of the Clouds, her song Talking Body, and for writing Love Me Like You Do for Ellie Goulding.
Did Tove Lo write Love Me Like You Do?
Yes, Tove Lo co-wrote Love Me Like You Do, which was recorded by Ellie Goulding for the film Fifty Shades of Grey. The song became a huge hit around the world and showed her skill as a songwriter for other artists.
How many albums has Tove Lo released?
She has released several studio albums, including Queen of the Clouds in 2014, Lady Wood in 2016, Blue Lips in 2017, Sunshine Kitty in 2019, and Dirt Femme in 2022. She has also released singles and collaborations with other artists.
What kind of music does Tove Lo make?
She makes pop music with electronic sounds, honest lyrics, and strong melodies. Her songs often talk about love, desire, bad habits, and the messy parts of adult life, and she writes in a direct and personal style.
Is Tove Lo still making music?
Yes, she continues to write, record, and perform. After Dirt Femme she released new singles and worked on collaborations, and she has spoken about how becoming a mother changed her life and her view of her work.
