Four summers ago, Lizzo was on top of the world.
The Detroit native who grew up in Houston and moved to Minneapolis in 2011 had built a catalog of smash hits — “Good As Hell,” “Truth Hurts,” “Juice,” “Rumors” and “About Damn Time” among them — that could be heard blasting from car radios and booming from TouchTunes at the neighborhood bar.
Her fourth album, “Special,” entered the Billboard charts at No. 2 and went on to win the singer her fourth Grammy Award. She had her own reality show on Prime Video, “ Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” where young dancers competed for a spot on her upcoming tour. HBO had just released the documentary “Love, Lizzo” and, at the end of that year, issued the film “Lizzo: Live in Concert.”
The aforementioned tour kicked off that September and filled arenas both at home and abroad, including a memorable St. Paul stop at the venue then known as Xcel Energy Center. After 10 months and 80 shows, the outing sold more than 853,000 tickets and grossed $86.3 million.
What made such massive success even more remarkable than usual was Lizzo herself. She was a Black woman, outspoken and overweight, four traits that often serve as stumbling blocks in the music business. Rather than trying to hide her perceived flaws, she celebrated them. She wore provocative clothes and loudly clapped back at her haters. She never played the victim. She was defiant and proud, in the best possible way.
And people loved her! In addition to a legion of devoted fans, Lizzo’s feel-good songs and headline-grabbing antics found favor among people of all ages and colors. She had earned the sort of widespread fame that was reminiscent of Prince at the height of his powers. (The Purple One had picked up on her talent early and invited her to guest on his 2014 album “Plectrumelectrum.”) We even named a snowplow after her!
Three summers ago, it all came crashing down. Weeks after the conclusion of her triumphant tour, three former backup dancers sued Lizzo, her production company and her dance captain Shirlene Quigley, accusing them of sexual harassment, religious and racial discrimination, assault, false imprisonment, creating a hostile work environment and weight-shaming.
Once the allegations went public, a former creative director and another dancer stepped forward and claimed they had similar experiences working with Lizzo. A month later, clothing designer Asha Daniels filed a similar lawsuit.
The public backlash came fast and furious. Lizzo, of all people, was attacking these women for their weight? Was everything she had so feverishly preached a lie? Was Lizzo a fraud?
For her part, Lizzo has firmly denied all the allegations and refused to settle out of court. Some of the lawsuits have since been dropped, while others are awaiting trial.
Regardless of the ultimate outcome, the accusations have turned her once-flaming career into cold, dead ashes.
In February 2025, Lizzo seemed poised for a comeback. She announced a new single, “Love in Real Life,” with an album on the way and three intimate concerts in Los Angeles, New York City and Minneapolis. Those gigs, which included a sold-out stop at First Avenue, raised a bit of buzz, but not enough to turn “Love in Real Life” into a hit. The follow-up “Still Bad” also went nowhere.
That promised new record never materialized. Instead, Lizzo issued a mixtape, “My Face Hurts from Smiling,” with a tone-deaf cover featuring Lizzo wearing a tank top, Daisy Dukes and a forced grin while flipping the bird with both middle fingers. It didn’t really stir any controversy, though, mainly because no one bothered listening to it.
It’s been more of the same so far this year. Another new song, “Don’t Make Me Love U,” came and went, despite some promotional appearances that included her fourth time serving as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live.” Three more singles seemed to disappear into thin air.
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“Bitch,” Lizzo’s first album since “Special,” finally arrived last month to reviews that ranged from tepid to scathing. It moved 5,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, a number so minuscule the record did not chart on the Billboard 200. It also missed the top 100 on the U.K. Albums Chart. Lizzo has yet to announce a tour for the record.
What’s most notable about Lizzo’s prolonged and stalled comeback is that it seems the majority of her audience, both the fans and more casual listeners, have abandoned her. It’s not like they sampled her new work and rejected it, it’s that they just never listened to it in the first place.
With her following gone, it’s unclear where Lizzo can go from here. Perhaps she left a hint in the lyrics of the title track of “Bitch”: “Wait, what you call me?/If you call me bad things/I’m gon’ be bad, baby.”
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