The Need to be Listened To

Anyone – by Demi Lovato

I tried to talk to my piano
I tried to talk to my guitar
Talked to my imagination
Confided into alcohol
I tried and tried and tried some more
Told secrets ’til my voice was sore
Tired of empty conversation
‘Cause no one hears me anymore

A hundred million stories
And a hundred million songs
I feel stupid when I sing
Nobody’s listening to me
Nobody’s listening
I talk to shooting stars
But they always get it wrong
I feel stupid when I pray
So, why am I praying anyway?
If nobody’s listening

Anyone, please send me anyone
Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone, oh
Anyone, please send me anyone
Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone

I used to crave the world’s attention
I think I cried too many times
I just need some more affection

Anything to get me by

A hundred million stories
And a hundred million songs
I feel stupid when I sing
Nobody’s listening to me
Nobody’s listening
I talk to shooting stars
But they always get it wrong
I feel stupid when I pray
Why the f#@k am I praying anyway?
If nobody’s listening

Anyone, please send me anyone
Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone, oh
Anyone, please send me anyone
Oh, Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone
Oh, anyone, I need anyone
Oh, anyone, I need someone

A hundred million stories

And a hundred million songs
I feel stupid when I sing
Nobody’s listening to me
Nobody’s listening

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Sam Roman / Badriia Bourelly / Dayyon Alexander / Eyelar Mirzazadeh / Demetria Lovato / Jay Vincenzo Mooncie

Anyone lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

---

A cry for Anyone. Who can hear and not listen to the existential free fall into oblivion? She shares the story behind the song she recorded four days before she overdosed on July 24, 2018.

This song captured my imagination because I can hear the “prophetic echo” of a person crying out for God – as she expresses:

I feel stupid when I pray
So, why am I praying anyway?
If nobody’s listening…

For good or bad, celebrities make their wounds the source of their art. Many expressions can be excessively self indulgent or self-focussed, but once in a while there is an undercurrent of the common human experience. Demi Lovato’s life has been in a fish bowl for a very long time, including her “innocent” Disney Channel beginnings through her dances with drugs and alcohol.  All the while a she has been subject to a critical and adoring public.

As one of her fans posted:

The lyrics hit me straight to the heart. I can hear her pain while singing. It’s just so sad that we’re living in a world where people are more interested in judging you rather than listening. This is the very first song that made me cry real tears of pain. (Hana_Dear; March 2020).

Lovato puts into words what many of us cry silently or aloud; this is prayer at its most primal:

Anyone, please send me anyone
Oh, Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone

---

For more on crying out to God see, “The Place of Suffering to the Soul.”