Lizzo slams criticism and mistreatment of Black pop artists: “The way this world treats Black women is sickening”

19 March, 2025

Lizzo has hit back at people criticising her music and other Black pop icons in the past – see what the ‘Truth Hurts’ singer had to say below.

Lizzo recently announced news of her new album ‘Love In Real Life’ when she previously released the LP’s title track as the lead single last month, and has since gone on to drop the unapologetic song ‘Still Bad’.

Lizzo. Credit: Presley Ann/Getty Images for Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit

Since then, the star has drawn some criticism for the song on social media and has made her return to X/Twitter since moving to BlueSky in November last year – save for a few promotional posts – to address criticism of her music and the mistreatment of Black women in pop as a whole.

Addressing her own music, she wrote: “Saying my brand of ‘poptimism’ doesn’t work in a ‘post-Covid world’ is a lazy take… as if I didn’t release ‘About Damn Time’ post pandemic…” She doubled down, continuing: “As if I didn’t write ‘About Damn Time’ to be a post lockdown anthem to inspire us to get outside and together again… and was successful at it btw”.

She then shared that she thinks the criticism she faces isn’t unique to her, but is something that has been experienced by several Black pop icons in the past: “I think seeing and hearing a Black woman make real music with radical joy triggers miserable people… but I follow in the footsteps of Janet [Jackson], of Funkadelic, of Earth Wind and Fire… nobody’s doing it like me for us. And I stand on that.”

She went on to call back to the numerous Black musicians who were mistreated: “Aretha [Franklin] and Whitney [Houston] got backlash for being “too pop” and they kept going… and so will I.”

She continued in a scathing post pointing out the hypocrisy of fans and the music industry when it comes to Black musicians: “The way this world treats Black women is sickening… blacklisted Janet and now 20yrs later yall calling her music “cute Black girl bops” & giving her flowers… Dogged Whitney for her love life & called her a drug addict for laughs but now yall wanna honor her… yall laughed at Tina [Turner]’s abuse and never let her forget… the least protected person in America…”

Elsewhere, Lizzo earlier this month explained how she came up with the album title, saying that it came when she realised how much more integral real-life friendships are compared to those through social media.

“I think that real life is the only place that love exists,” she began. “I think that I have mistaken the gratification that you get from social media as love. Because there was a time [where] I wasn’t reaching out to the people who were closest to me or I was in isolation, in desolation, in certain times of my life. The internet was the only place I felt seen and appreciated.”

“I think when it stops becoming that safe space and it becomes a very toxic, destructive place, your sense of self-worth gets destroyed as well,” she added. “I had to discover in the past two years, one and a half years, that as good as it feels to be praised online and to be loved by people through a screen, the real love happens when you are in the real world connecting with people.”

Lizzo at Lizzo In Real Life at The Wiltern on March 12, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)
Lizzo at Lizzo In Real Life at The Wiltern on March 12, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)

These comments come after Lizzo broke her silence in December on the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against her in 2023, claiming that she “did nothing wrong”. She had been sued by three former dancers who claimed to have been subject to sexual harassment and a hostile workplace environment while on tour. The singer denied the claims and said the situation had left her contemplating quitting the music industry.

At the time of writing, no official release date for ‘Love In Real Life’ has been confirmed. A press release, however, has shared that “This chapter is all about love, life, and Lizzo.”

Lizzo’s last album, ‘Special’, was given a four-star review from NME, which read: “Perhaps inevitably, given Lizzo’s overwhelmingly positive message, ‘Special’ is sometimes a bit cheesy. Still, it’s cheesy in a way you won’t want to resist… Lizzo knows exactly who she is as an artist and what she wants to achieve: she’s the bad bitch with an incredible talent for making people feel good.”

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