Lizzo has a viral explanation for her declining success—and it’s dividing social media
On Friday, June 5, Lizzo released her new album Bitch. It’s not doing so well. In its first 24 hours of release, Bitch garnered just 633,914 streams on Spotify. That’s a far cry from the heights of Lizzo’s previous two albums, 2022’s Special and 2019’s Cuz I Love You, which debuted at No. 2 and No. 6 on the Billboard 200 respectively. In the first half of the 2020s, Lizzo’s cultural presence was undeniable. Her single Truth Hurts went massively viral, launching her into the spotlight. Between 2020 and 2023, she won four Grammys and even an Emmy for her reality competition Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. But in the years since, Lizzo’s foothold in pop culture seems to have slipped. And according to the singer, a widespread shift in the music industry is to blame. ‘I was a radio darling’: Lizzo says streaming is at fault After Bitch’s underwhelming debut, some social media users wondered why the tide seems to have turned against Lizzo. “Lizzo not having a fanbase is so weird to me when this woman was literally selling out arenas not even 2 years ago,” one user wrote in a viral post. “Like, where did those people go?” Though plenty of other users had theories (including a lack of evolution in her sound, an online obsession with dunking on the singer, and simply the fickle finger of the music industry), Lizzo herself chimed in on the discourse with her own explanation for the decline in her fanbase. “I actually can answer this: the industry changed so much in the last 3 yrs,” Lizzo wrote. “Streaming replaced radio & I was a radio darling. That’s how my fans discovered my music.” Lizzo added that “the very obvious & public attack on my career changed things” as well, likely referring to the lawsuit filed against her in 2023 by three former backup dancers, who accused Lizzo of harassment, discrimination, and assault, among other claims. Lizzo has denied the allegations, and the lawsuit is ongoing. Still, Lizzo wrote that she’s “out here doing my absolute best and u