Lo And Behold

Leonie Cooper meets Tove Lo, the ballsy pop sensation who won’t be happy until “women can be naked the way men can”

- Leonie Cooper

IN A SWEATY EAST LONDON basement lined with paintings of kinky Care Bears and Mickey Mouse with a hard-on, Tove Lo has taken to the stage. The Swedish dark-wave-pop-icon-in-the-making gleefully yells out tracks from her recently released second album ‘Lady Wood’ – an uncompromising whirlwind of emotion, sex and massive bangers (think The Weeknd meets early '90s Madonna). Suddenly Tove pulls down her top to reveal stick-on marijuana leaves covering her nipples. Drag queens gyrate and pout in the front row and everyone is simply having a wonderful time (even MailOnline, which posts a typically salacious blog about Lo’s “steamy display”). However, a few thousand miles away a megalomaniac reality TV star in a sandy toupee is about to be named the leader of the most populous country in the Western World. It’s a night of mixed emotions. 

The next day NME meets Lo in her hotel. Real name Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson – the ‘Lo’ means lynx, a creature she recently had tattooed on her hand – this time she’s covered up but still as open and frank as ever.

It’s hard not to immediately discuss Donald Trump’s election, especially considering the deep-seated feminism that runs through Lo’s music and her entire creative process. Plus the fact she’s already been actively anti-Trump on social media (“My fuel for tonight’s gig was #trump rage. Grab em by the p***y, I’ll kick you in the face. And balls,” she wrote in October).