How Lizzo Became One of Pop Culture’s Great Flops
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- Lizzo's album "Bitch" sold just 2,650 copies in its first week and missed the Billboard 200 entirely, prompting her to publicly plead with fans to presave the record
- Atlantic Records faced accusations from Lizzo of shirking promotional duties ahead of the album release, with the singer also blaming algorithms, the decline of radio, and personal enemies
- A 2023 lawsuit by three backup dancers alleged a hostile work environment, including pressuring them to touch nude performers at a strip club in Amsterdam; Lizzo denied the claims, a judge dismissed portions, and other claims are still proceeding
- "About Damn Time" from Lizzo's prior album "Special" went double-platinum after that record debuted at No. 2 in summer 2022, a near-complete reversal from her current commercial standing
- "Truth Hurts" was released in 2017 but broke through only in 2019 after a Netflix rom-com placement and a TikTok DNA-test trend that a French TikToker joined with a baguette
- Charli XCX, Bebe Rexha, DDG, and James Blake have publicly narrated their own commercial anxieties alongside the rise of "Khia Asylum" slang for stars who can't land a hit, with Blake consoling artists that they're "probably doing better than you think"
Why it matters: Lizzo was once the streaming era's marquee example of an unconventional star built by the algorithm — her 'Bitch' debuting with just 2,650 sales illustrates how the same system can discard the artists it made, and her 2025 mixtape also failed to chart. Peers from Charli XCX to James Blake airing identical anxieties confirms this pattern is industry-wide, not personal.
