Remember when Lizzo took a DNA test and learnt she was “100 per cent that bitch”? That highly quoted lyric from her 2019 song “Truth Hurts” was one of several hits to exude an infectious confidence that made the Houston-raised singer the poster girl for empowering pop. She doubled down in the live arena: her shows were extraordinary, eye-popping affairs in which she shimmied and strutted around the stage in lace and latex. So strong was her appeal that this paper argued in 2023 that she should have headlined Glastonbury over Guns N’ Roses, much to Axl Rose’s chagrin.
This month Lizzo returns with her fifth album, Bitch. Unfortunately, it’s far from 100 per cent. Instead, this oddly frantic and brittle-sounding record seems to suggest that the once-reigning star has been knocked by a difficult few years. Just a few months after that triumphant Glastonbury performance, she found herself the subject of a lawsuit from three of her former backup dancers, whose claims of sexual misconduct and body-shaming in what they alleged was a “hostile” work environment went against everything Lizzo was supposed to stand for. Their accusations were backed by her former creative director, another dancer, and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison, who claimed she quit a documentary project after witnessing the singer exhibit “unkind and cruel” behaviour. Meanwhile, Lizzo has vehemently denied all the claims against her, some of which have been dismissed by a judge, and said last month that she will continue fighting her case.
