{"id":2472410,"date":"2026-06-23T17:55:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2472410"},"modified":"2026-06-23T17:55:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:55:23","slug":"lizzos-new-album-bitch-didnt-even-chart-what-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/lizzos-new-album-bitch-didnt-even-chart-what-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"Lizzo\u2019s New Album ‘Bitch’ Didn\u2019t Even Chart. What Happened?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThere\u2019s no denying that Lizzo<\/a> is a singular artist. After exploding on the scene in 2019, she went on to land a string of hits with the ubiquitous \u201cJuice,\u201d \u201cAbout Damn Time,\u201d and \u201cGood as Hell,\u201d picking up Grammys and other accolades along the way. Not a traditional pop singer, she infused her music with funky horns, hip-hop grooves, and even the flute. She overindexed for bops, but was there a Lizzo sound? Depends on the track. <\/p>\n

\n\tLizzo first began chipping away at her fifth studio album, Bitch<\/em>, around four years ago. The album underwent a number of transformations during that time. It was initially meant to be titled Love in Real Life<\/em>, supported by a single of the same name and the disco-pop track \u201cStill Bad,\u201d both of which arrived last year. While Lizzo was still making up her mind about what she wanted her next album cycle to embody, it seems the broader pop audience already made up its mind about her.<\/p>\n

\n\tBitch <\/em>arrived on June 5 via Atlantic Records. Within its first week, the album sold 2,649 copies and racked up just under 2.7 million on-demand streams, according to music data company Luminate. In its second week, sales dropped to 650 units, while streams dipped to just under 900,000. It\u2019s a steep drop from her previous album, 2022\u2019s Special<\/em>, which debuted with 39,000 copies sold and 69,000 equivalent album units earned, enough for a Number Two debut on the Billboard<\/em> 200. Bitch <\/em>somehow managed to evade the chart entirely. Time is of the essence for most pop artists, and yet her brief absence doesn\u2019t entirely explain such an abrupt fall. What does?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think the biggest reason is that she never had a core fanbase,\u201d one former senior label executive who requested anonymity tells Rolling Stone. <\/em>\u201cShe was a very song-driven, radio-hits-driven artist who lacked a core fanbase, and that\u2019s what you need today for career longevity.\u201d Lizzo considered this perspective herself. Earlier this month, she credited perceived changes in the primary consumption model of music for limiting her audience. \u201cThe industry changed so much in the last 3 yrs. streaming replaced radio & I was a radio darling,\u201d she wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s how my fans discovered my music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tLizzo\u2019s most recent Hot 100 hit, \u201cSpecial,\u201d featuring SZA, spent 10 weeks on the chart in 2023. While the single peaked at Number 52, it reached Number 19 on the Radio Songs chart and Number 15 on the Pop Airplay chart. The success of Special <\/em>was largely bolstered by the breakout singles \u201cAbout Damn Time\u201d and \u201c2 Be Loved (Am I Ready).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI speak like a manager, that\u2019s all BS to me,\u201d industry pundit Ray Daniels<\/a> tells Rolling Stone<\/em> of placing the blame on streaming. \u201cIf you know that the industry is changing, you should be warning your fans ahead of time. Why are you not telling your fans to request your song on radio? They\u2019re your fans, they\u2019ll do what you ask them to do.\u201d However, there is the factor that the trust between Lizzo and her audience has been deeply fractured in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her post, Lizzo also acknowledged \u201cthe very obvious & public attack on my career\u201d that largely shifted public opinion against her favor. In 2023, her former backup dancers accused her of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment, and fat-shaming in a lawsuit<\/a> that has still yet to be settled. Last month, Lizzo sat down with Gayle King on CBS Mornings<\/em><\/a> <\/em>and stated she would rather prepare for trial than opt for an easy settlement. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of the truth,\u201d she added. \u201cThe truth is less salacious than the headlines.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s already lost too much goodwill, anyway. Settling won\u2019t bring it back. \u201cA big part of her brand was being the underdog and being very self-confident, I am who I am, I support everyone, body positivity,\u201d the former senior label exec continued. \u201cAnd when you\u2019re called to task for the mistreatment of exactly what you held out as being your, quote-unquote, brand, then fans don\u2019t wanna see you win anymore, and they desert you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn the three years between Special <\/em>and Bitch<\/em>, Lizzo began bracing herself for a sharp decline in public interest by creating music that existed on the outskirts of what audiences came to know her for. The 2025 mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling<\/em><\/a> <\/em>sourced beats from longtime collaborator Ricky Reed and Zaytoven for her first venture into rap in a long while. Her debut album, 2013\u2019s Lizzobangers<\/em>, emphasized her interest in hip-hop as a performer; but most listeners who discovered her through Cuz I Love You <\/em>in 2019 were unfamiliar with the project, which was removed from streaming services for a year while she campaigned for the 2020 Grammy Awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis mixtape is like, \u2018I\u2019m going to just say it. I don\u2019t give a fuck. All right\u2019: \u2018I\u2019ve been fat, and I\u2019ve been skinny\/Bitches still ain\u2019t fucking with me,\u2019\u201d Lizzo told Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> <\/em>last year. \u201cI don\u2019t think that could ever be on a Lizzo song. I would\u2019ve been so scared to put that in something like \u2018About Damn Time\u2019 or \u2018Juice.\u2019\u201d Bitch<\/em>, despite being created with Reed in tandem with My Face Hurts From Smiling<\/em>, leans more pop and R&B with lyrics that may have been dulled down for palatability.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMusically, I don\u2019t know what she\u2019s been doing,\u201d another veteran music-industry executive tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cI assume she\u2019s not making the records like she used to, that resonate the way that the other ones did because they were very infectious and formatted, doo-wop type pop records with sassy meme language in it.\u201d In a review of the album, Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> <\/em>wrote, \u201cBitch<\/em> is full of tired moves and cynical appeals to the streaming algorithm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo far, neither radio nor streaming has latched onto any of the three singles from Bitch<\/em> \u2014 \u201cDon\u2019t Make Me Love U\u201d arrived in March, followed by title track \u201cBitch\u201d (which interpolates 1997\u2019s Meredith Brooks song of the same name) in May and \u201cSexy Ladies,\u201d which was serviced as a single one week after the album\u2019s release. A collaboration with D.C. band UCB, \u201cSexy Ladies\u201d is the most likely hit from the record. Crafted with the late producer Tay Keith<\/a>, who died last week at the age of 29, the single is an ode to summer in the South, with the potential for global reach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe thing is, reach comes at a cost. There was a time when labels paid top dollar to promote a song to radio, all but ensuring exposure which would lead to other sources of revenue, be it album sales, concert tickets, or merchandise. Today, the cost of mass exposure is more affordable, but is it genuine when you\u2019re effectively spamming social media with feigned enthusiasm? This is where budgets come in, and today\u2019s majors have to be realistic about their rosters. Says the veteran industry executive: \u201cThey\u2019re gonna phone it in and give her the rollout that feels like they\u2019re spending something, but it\u2019s super lackluster, probably not very championed, right? And if something goes, great. Because that\u2019s what happened last time.\u201d (Representatives for Lizzo did not respond to Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.)<\/p>\n

\n\tLizzo inked her deal with Atlantic Records in 2016, three years before \u201cTruth Hurts\u201d appeared in Netflix\u2019s Someone Great <\/em>and struck viral gold on TikTok, which was only just truly emerging as a formidable force in the music industry after rebranding from Musical.ly a year prior. To date, \u201cTruth Hurts\u201d has been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify. \u201cIt was a fluke, her blowing up,\u201d the veteran industry executive continued. \u201cNobody went and put millions of dollars behind her.\u201d\u00a0(It\u2019s worth noting that the executive team which signed Lizzo to the Warner Music label has changed; Atlantic is now headed by Elliot Grainge, son of Universal Music Group head Sir Lucian Grainge, a business competitor \u2014 par for the course in the nepo-favoring music industry.)<\/p>\n

\n\tLizzo made the most of the moment. She made her Saturday Night Live <\/em>debut in December 2019 and just a few months later took home the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance for \u201cTruth Hurts\u201d and Best Urban Contemporary Album for Cuz I Love You<\/em>. She sustained the momentum through \u201cAbout Damn Time,\u201d which was awarded Record of the Year in 2023. \u201cShe is positioned to really be more successful than a lot of artists, so it is baffling,\u201d the veteran industry executive said. \u201cBut it also shows you a classic industry underbelly fact, which is that the music industry does not care about its legacy artists at all, actually. If you fall off, you\u2019re literally like nothing to your labels, or to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn May, Lizzo took promotion for Bitch <\/em>into her own hands. \u201cMy label won\u2019t hang posters, so I will do it myself,\u201d she said in a social media video showing herself putting up promo material as a one-woman street team. \u201cYou have 26.4 million people that follow you on TikTok and 11.2 million on Instagram, people that you can press a button and talk to and you still blaming the label,\u201d Daniels says. \u201cYou mean to tell me instead of you talking to the fans about your music, you\u2019re talking to the fans about how the label is not promoting your music?\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIt isn\u2019t uncommon for labels to look toward an existing fanbase as a prerequisite for showing interest in an artist. It mitigates their risk and offers confidence in their investments.\u00a0But without proof of potential streams and sales, they have to be willing to take the chance. Most aren\u2019t. \u201cIt\u2019s very political and very much about where money is going. Everywhere it\u2019s like that. It\u2019s about money and power behind an artist,\u201d the veteran industry executive said. \u201cThat\u2019s why artists loved Clive Davis and Jimmy Iovine, because they would take a Lizzo and they would lift her up if she was not doing so well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tDuring the same summer of Special<\/em>, Sam Smith scored one of their most enduring hits in years with Kim Petras on \u201cUnholy.\u201d This year, Zara Larsson achieved the breakthrough <\/a>she\u2019d been working towards for an entire decade, notably aided by an unmistakable and vibrant visual aesthetic and hits with just enough charm to stick. When it comes to the nature of pop in 2026, it would be unwise to count out a comeback for almost any artist. \u201cI think there\u2019s always hope for every artist. A hit cures all,\u201d the veteran industry executive said. \u201cBut it can take many years, or it could never come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere does Lizzo go from here? \u201cI don\u2019t think she\u2019s done at all,\u201d Daniels says. \u201cThis is just a moment to remind her that she still has work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n