Lizzo reacts – Lizzo, 38, says her new album “Bitch” landed far below expectations after she ramped up promotion ahead of its June 5 release—leaving her to confront how quickly confidence can be tied to numbers. Her comments come as sales data show a steep drop from “Special
For a few weeks ahead of her June 5 release, Lizzo said she poured extra energy into promoting “Bitch.” Then it arrived—and the response didn’t match what she’d hoped for.
In an interview with “Swiftologist” released June 28. the “About Damn Time” singer reflected on the moment she realized her latest album’s sales were coming in far lower than expected. “It dropped, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK, this isn’t what I thought it would.’” she said. She added that she hadn’t expected it to be “crazy,” but also didn’t think it would be “this.”.
“There was, like, 24 hours of my life where I based my success and my worth on a number, and I think that was soul-crushing,” Lizzo said, speaking directly about how quickly a single metric can hit you.
The commercial picture behind that reaction is stark. “Bitch,” Lizzo’s follow-up to her award-winning 2022 album “Special,” sold 2,649 copies in its first week. That’s a sharp decline from the 39,000 copies “Special” debuted with. The new album also failed to chart on the Billboard 200, while “Special” reached No. 2.
Lizzo’s relationship with chart success isn’t new. The lead single from “Special,” “About Damn Time,” reached No. 1 and won a Grammy for record of the year.
Her “Swiftologist” comments focused not just on what the numbers show, but on what they forced her to feel. She said she took the poor performance “to heart really, really, heavily,” even though she was happy with the music itself.
She described going back inward before launch—saying she “meditated” and “prayed” on the album launch—and then realizing she shouldn’t judge “my success or my impact on numbers” because it becomes “soul-crushing” when she does. “I had to reframe and be like. ‘But aren’t you proud of yourself?’ And I was like. ‘Yeah. I actually am proud of myself.’ Aren’t you excited to sing these songs?. Aren’t you glad they’re out?’ Yeah,” she said.
Lizzo also said she came to terms with a change she feels in her work’s relationship to the outside world. She described being “really stressed and really sad for a few days. ” because she believed the record was among her best. “I just was like, ‘Wait a minute. This is some of my best stuff. I want people to find it,’” she said.
Then she pointed to a different reality for how she connects now. She said she had to “come to terms with the fact” that her “connection, musically, with the world is different” than it once was.
Those feelings land in a wider moment for Lizzo’s career. “Bitch” is her fifth studio album, and she’s been a radio staple since reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 with “Truth Hurts.” It is also her first studio album since a workplace misconduct lawsuit from her former dancers in 2023. The lawsuit accused her of assault, false imprisonment and sexual harassment. Lizzo has strongly and repeatedly denied the allegations, and the civil case is ongoing.
In addition to that legal backdrop, Lizzo said she is dealing with perceptions about where her fanbase sits today. On X earlier this month. she reacted to a post saying she no longer has “a fanbase.” Lizzo blamed that on the shift from radio to streaming. writing that “streaming replaced radio & I was a radio darling. ” and also pointed to what she described as “the very obvious & public attack on my career. ” which she connected to the 2023 lawsuit.
Ahead of “Bitch’s” release, she told reporters she was trying to take her narrative back. Speaking with MISRYOUM USA24 News ahead of the release of “Bitch. ” the Grammy winner said she was “reclaiming who I am” with the new record. “A lot of my identity has been manipulated by people outside of me. so this album is me taking that back − showing the Lizzo everybody knows and loves. letting her tell her side of the story and just letting her play again. ” she said.
All of it leaves one tension at the center of Lizzo’s return: the creative work is finished and “out,” but the reception—measured in weekly units and chart positions—still has enough weight to make a person feel their worth wobble for a day.
Lizzo Bitch album Swiftologist sales Billboard 200 Special About Damn Time Grammy Truth Hurts streaming vs radio workplace misconduct lawsuit