
Heidi Montag, Pop Phoenix Rising
By Erica Russell
Jan 27, 2025
Heidi Montag quickly earned a for-better-or-worse reputation for reality TV drama, tabloid overexposure and plastic surgery after rising to fame on MTV in the late 2000s. Some of it was real. Most of it was manufactured. So, no title could have been more fitting for the blonde bombshell’s glossy 2010 debut pop album than Superficial.
But the gag is as far as celebrities go, the reality star-turned-pop star isn’t superficial at all. Hopping on the phone with PAPER, Montag, who grew up in an outdoorsy mountain town in Colorado before moving to flashy Hollywood to chase her dreams, is warm and sweet. She comes across as humble, earnest and full of gratitude for her family, her fans and her many blessings, even in a time of great personal tragedy.
In early January, Montag and husband Spencer Pratt’s family home in the Pacific Palisades burned to the ground during the disastrous Los Angeles fires. While the couple were able to safely flee with their two young sons and have since filed a lawsuit against the city citing inverse condemnation, they lost everything they had built since their time on The Hills nearly two decades ago, from Pratt’s charming hummingbird garden to Montag’s personal collection of well-earned, decades-spanning magazine covers.
In the days that followed, a small silver lining appeared. In an effort to help the couple rebuild their life, fans began furiously streaming and downloading Montag’s underappreciated, 15-year-old debut album. Though the record — which Montag and Pratt reportedly spent a whopping $2 million to make with music industry heavy-hitters such as Cathy Dennis and Christopher Rojas — flopped spectacularly at the time of its release, it has slowly gained a long-overdue cult following, drawing retrospective comparisons to iconic noughties albums like Britney Spears’ Blackout, Paris Hilton’s Paris, and Hilary Duff’s Dignity while going viral on its own accord when a sped-up version of the track “I’ll Do It” became a popular trending audio on TikTok.
But nothing could have prepared Montag and Pratt, the duo referred to as Speidi in the press, for the album’s stratospheric success over the past few weeks. Superficial hit No. 1 on iTunes, climbed the Spotify U.S. Viral Chart and entered the Billboard Top 200. Online, the album’s been promoted by Avril Lavigne, Kristin Cavallari, Diplo, Flavor Flav, Julia Fox and Jennifer Lopez. Up next? A radio-friendly remix of “I’ll Do It” featuring Mr. Worldwide himself, Pitbull.
To celebrate and thank their supporters for the album’s “surreal” resurgence, the resilient pop culture power couple surprise-released Superficial 2: Heidiwood Edition on Jan. 24. Twelve brand new songs recorded over the past year expand upon the unsung dance-pop opus Montag dropped 15 years ago. If Superficial was the glitzy, glamorous premiere, 2025’s Heidiwood Edition is the invite-only afterparty at the sleazy nightclub around the corner. Sexier and even more unapologetic than its pop predecessor, Superficial 2 goes full throttle into the bimbocore movement Montag’s career undoubtedly helped inspire. (In Heidiwood, the streets are paved in bleach blonde.)
The deluxe cut of the album kicks off with a heavenly choir singing, “Thank you, Heidi,” setting the stage for a self-referential and deliciously camp record that, much like Montag herself, doesn’t take itself too seriously. That opening track, “Thank Me,” evokes '90s freestyle in the vein of Rockell or Lil Suzy, though it’s hard to imagine either of those divas singing the words, “Thank me for serving cunt.” It’s followed by the even more irreverent “Heidiwood,” a hard-driving pop-rock banger produced by AOBeats and S2XS, and featuring Chase Icon. The indulgent anthem could easily serve as the theme song for a new reality show centered on Speidi’s life in Hollywood.
Superficial 2 offers some playful sonic throwbacks to the sugary 2000s-era bubblegum and dance-pop that inspired her first album, but Montag wanted “to be in the now of music” this time around. While she conjured the iconic pop stylings of Spears and Janet Jackson on her album 15 years ago, working on these new songs Montag found herself listening to more emergent, experimental artists such as Sizzy Rocket, Slayyyter, Mel 4Ever, Slush Puppy and Snow Wife.
“Music has really changed. I went into the studio with the mind frame of doing a Superficial follow-up, and I wanted that bubblegum pop sound,” Montag says. “Once I started being immersed in the studio, getting around these new producers and writers, so many people said that pop, in that essence, doesn't exist anymore. Now it’s very experimental; it's hyperpop and it's slutpop. I thought, ‘Well, actually, I've already done [bubblegum pop]. [Spencer and I were like,] ‘Why don’t we try a new sound?’ It feels raw and real and sexy and edgy and cool. It's what’s percolating right now.”
You can do whatever you want, be whoever you want to be, and look however you want. It’s no one's job to judge.
Montag leans into that fresh sonic territory on Sizzy Rocket-co-written tracks like “Sriracha,” on which she lays down a hot, breathy vocal over glitched-out, mid-tempo hyperpop; and “Tetris,” a bouncy, humid slice of trop-house themed around video games, as well as less SFW hobbies. Elsewhere, on the naughty, pulsating Housefly-produced club anthem “Top,” Montag sings about being on top, duh: “So excited, I can’t wait to ride it!” she exclaims.
On songs such as “Heidiwood,” “Prototype” and “America’s Sweetheart,” Montag cheekily weaves in references to her controversial relationship with cosmetic surgery. (“Doctor did my nose and my chin and my cleavage/ So let them say what they wanna say,” she sings on the latter.) It’s a topic many still shy away from today, even though it’s estimated around 15 million people in the United States have undergone at least one cosmetic procedure.
For Montag, being open about what she’s had enhanced is all about staying real and true to herself. “I think being authentic, transparent and honest are really important qualities. I've never been a liar,” she shares. “I think it's empowering for people to acknowledge [plastic surgery], especially in Hollywood, where people are always looking at magazines and aspiring to be something that seems so unattainable, not realizing what so many of these movie stars have had done. To be able to own that and say, ‘This is what I do, and this is what I've done,’ is really important, especially at such a young age,” she adds. “I was criticized for that, but I think that's why a lot of people identified with me and with Superficial at that time, especially in the LGBTQ+ community, because people want empowerment over their bodies and to be able to do what they want and transform themselves. I'm all about that. You can do whatever you want, be whoever you want to be, and look however you want. It’s no one’s job to judge.”
On “Flash,” a head-over-heels Montag looks back wistfully at her serendipitous 2006 LA nightclub meet-cute with Pratt and reflects on their fairytale life together (“Who knew that forever was a second away?”). One of Montag’s favorite songs off the album, the sticky-sweet, melodic bop serves as a testament to Speidi’s deep, ride-or-die bond — a Hollywood love story she believes was misunderstood for so long due to the salacious nature of reality TV and the tabloids. “I think that people have always seen [our relationship], but not always appreciated it or loved it. Little did they know we were going to get married and have kids; this flash, this moment, is our love and lifespan.”
“Flash” is just one of the new songs that nods to The Hills, winking references to which are sprinkled across the tracklist much to the delight of nostalgic, longtime MTV fans who grew up watching Montag sunbathe, sneak into parties and take fake work calls on her flip phone on their TV screens in the mid-to-late 2000s.
On “Forgive and Forget,” Montag, who co-wrote the song with Cali Rodi, Jordyn Kane and Aaron Blackmar, revisits one of the most infamous, heartbreaking friendship breakups in all of millennial pop culture. With references to “mascara tears” and “storylines and shady lies,” the surprisingly emotional track reclaims one of the reality series’ most explosive narratives. “I’m not sleeping with the enemy/ Do you know what you meant to me?/ Let me refresh your memory,” Montag sings over thumping electro-pop, before letting it all out on the chorus: “So tell me how could I be so easy to lose/ Even after everything that we’ve been through?/ I wanna forgive you and I wanna forget you.”
Whether you were Team Heidi or Team LC all those years ago, it’s a moving moment that finally closes a not-so-unwritten chapter for fans. “I’m very nostalgic, so there's a few throwbacks to that 2010 era — surgery, TV, friendships, fame,” Montag shares carefully. “It's definitely for the fans who love that period of culture, but you can feel how personal some of the songs are. Some of them are more tongue-in-cheek, but some of them are more about the experiences I really went through. It’s nice to have a voice in a situation that was a long time ago.”
Other tracks find Montag addressing the public’s perception of her, but she doesn’t so much as attempt to dismantle her persona as poke fun at it. Album closers “Bad Publicity” and “America’s Sweetheart” comprise a one-two, electro-pop punch that plays with the pop artist’s unforgiving tabloid reputation as a fame seeker. “I always take everything with a grain of salt because I've been berated and ostracized more than anyone in this industry,” she explains. “It’s nice to finally take a step back and see people appreciate the music not just for the reputation associated with it. I really appreciate everyone’s support.”
No matter how many A-list pop producers and writers worked on it, the genuinely excellent, radio-friendly pop of Superficial didn’t stand a chance against the misogyny of the era 15 years ago — toward Montag’s perpetual tabloid presence, her meta embrace of “being famous for being famous,” harsh public perception from The Hills, and cultural attitudes toward plastic surgery. But Heidi Montag was ahead of her time. Finally, it seems, the world has caught up — just in time for her triumphant rise from the ashes.
“Even before the devastation of us losing our home, Superficial started having its own resurgence,” Montag says. “I definitely had felt the momentum, and when I talked to people about it, they said it’s because it was a staple in their lives, that it was transformative and provided escape. The times are different today, so having a new generation be able to listen to the music and appreciate it without all the judgment and criticism and stigma attached to it has been really refreshing. It’s powerful.”
Photography: Jon Premosch (Courtesy of Heidi Montag)
From Your Site Articles
- In Conversation: Slayyyter and Heidi Montag ›
- Heidi Montag, Pop Diva Reborn ›
- Heidi Montag as Herself ›
Related Articles Around the Web
MORE ON PAPER
Music
Björk Is Hopeful for Our Planet
Story by Matt Wille / Photography by Vidar Logi / Styling by Edda Gudmundsdottir / Makeup by Daniel Sallstrom / Hair by Ali Pirzadeh / Nails by Texto Dallas / Set design by Andrew Lim Clarkson / Masks by James Merry
Story by Matt Wille / Photography by Vidar Logi / Styling by Edda Gudmundsdottir / Makeup by Daniel Sallstrom / Hair by Ali Pirzadeh / Nails by Texto Dallas / Set design by Andrew Lim Clarkson / Masks by James Merry
21 January
Music
Miss Bashful by Linux: A Match in Brooklyn
Story by Linux / Photography by Diego Urbina
Story by Linux / Photography by Diego Urbina
17 January