Since releasing her fifth album in early June, the pop star Lizzo has been on something of a tear.
After reaching eye-watering success with hits like “Truth Hurts” and “About Damn Time,” the four-time Grammy winner’s latest effort has dropped with a thud, reportedly streaming under a million times on Spotify within the first 24 hours of its release, selling fewer than 3,000 copies in its first week according to Rolling Stone and failing to crack the Billboard 200 in the first two weeks.
Once ubiquitous in the culture — as much for her full-on embrace of self-love and body positivity as for her infectious anthems — Lizzo is now relegated to “what happened to her?” status.
On social media, the 38-year-old pop star has offered her own theories as to why her album, the provocatively titled “Bitch,” is failing to break through, while also appearing to push back on haters. “The algorithm-based way that social media functions now is destroying the music industry,” she said in a TikTok posted on May 12, addressing why some may not have even been aware she was dropping a new album just weeks later. “If your algorithm is super serving you things out of order of when they’re happening, then the general public has no idea when music is actually coming out.”
