She's not one to shy away from baring it all, yet we have uncovered some details in Tove Lo's story that have remained under wraps
If our cover story and digital exclusive with Tove Lo for Issue 9 of Vogue Scandinavia is anything to go by, the Swedish pop star is as open about the dark and intimate parts of her story as she is with the bright and successful. Despite her characteristically honest and unfiltered ways, a few details about her personal and professional path to date seem to have eluded many.
Below, we uncover the five details about our cover star Tove Lo that may well have slipped through the net of common knowledge.
Tove Lo isn't her real name
Die-hard fans will be aware, but for many others it can come as a surprise: Tove Lo's real name is Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson. At the age of three, the musician developed an infatuation with lynxes ('lo' in Swedish), which sparked a lifelong nickname and adopted stage name. "There was this lynx at a zoo that was called Tove, and that I totally fell in love with," she's quoted as saying. "It was my dear grandmother who decided to call me Tove Lo, after that lynx."
Lo has talked about the difficulty some have with the pronunciation of the name in English, but this was clarified once and for all during her appearance on Ru Paul's Drag Race earlier this year: Tov-AY L-ou. Now you know.
Photo: Getty
She has undergone vocal cord surgery
On paper, it may look like a well-deserved hiatus from a busy schedule of writing, recording and touring, but in fact, Tove Lo's short break in 2014 was due to a career-threatening surgery on her vocal cords. What Lo had always assumed was a natural husky tone to her voice was due to a cyst that was diagnosed during her tour in Australia with Katy Perry. Lo was forced to pull out of all of her shows for the remainder of the year.
The surgery was a success, though Lo was a little shaken when she found her to sound a little different when it first returned. Now, she takes a number of measures to protect her precious vocals, including reportedly eating weed instead of smoking it.
She has co-written countless hit tracks
In the roughly 10 years that Tove Lo has lived in Los Angeles, her songwriting career has blossomed beyond her own discography. Her skill for producing the catchiest of earworms has helped to produce many hit tracks heard on high rotation. And there is no limitation to the genre or style, with Lo diving deep into pop delights (Hilary Duff's One in a Million, to electronic house (Alesso's Heroes), to rom-com soundtrack favourites (Ellie Goulding's Still Falling For You, and teaming up with fellow Swedes (Zara Larsson's Don't Worry About Me). The line-up of Lo's co-writing collaborators does not end there, though, with Nick Jonas, Duran Duran, Charli XCX, Flume, Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue and Coldplay also on the list.
Photo: Getty
Each of her tattoos holds personal meaning
The most well-known of Lo's tattoos, a small scorpion in the upper corner of her collarbone, requires little explanation – her star sign is Scorpio. Similarly, the lynx that covers her right hand is a personal stamp of the lynx, being her "spirit animal" and stage name (Lo made sure this one featured on her "microphone hand").
The others are less obvious. At least two of the pieces on her arms are replicas of works of American painter Mark Ryden: a flaming heart and a girl riding a bee, taken from Clear Heart Grey Flowers (in a nod to a rock band she formed in 2006, Tremblebee). And on her inner right bicep is an outline of a vagina, inked in 2016 to mark the success of her album Lady Wood – the symbol also appeared on the album cover and on jackets shared by that tour crew. Specially created designs by Melbourne tattoo artist Harley Jones also feature on Lo's arms – look closely to spot a custom lynx character together with Super Ted, representing Lo and her now husband Charlie Twaddle.
She can also act
Adding another string to her multitalented bow, Lo made her acting debut in an award-nominated Swedish feature film, The Emigrants by Norwegian director Erik Poppe. Released in 2021, the film is an adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg's 1950s novel of the same name, with Lo playing the role of Ulrika – one of many Swedes who travelled to the United States in the middle of the 19th century. In this, her debut acting role, Lo took an interesting approach to learning the craft, observing the process of her costars Gustaf Skarsgård and Lisa Carlehed and studying the ways they would create and express feeling.
Lo has said acting had always been "a dream rather than an intention" but that she was delighted to be part of the project and loved the character of Ulrika: "she's a fighter, but still vulnerable".
Tove Lo as Ulrika in The Emigrants (Utvarndrarna).