Lizzo’s latest album ‘Bitch’ has missed the top 100 album charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Grammy Award winning artist released her fifth studio album on June 5. Ahead of its arrival, she introduced the project through the singles ‘Don’t Make Me Love U’ and the title track.
Despite the promotion, ‘Bitch’ failed to secure a place on the Billboard 200 in the US. The record also did not make the UK top 100 albums chart. On the Official Albums Downloads Chart in the UK, the album currently sits at Number 83.
Lizzo’s previous release, ‘Special’, reached Number Two on the Billboard albums chart in 2022 and climbed to Number Six in the UK.
‘Special’ included the smash hit ‘About Damn Time’, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and reached Number Three on the UK Official Singles Chart. Another single from the album, ‘2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)’, also earned Lizzo a place inside the UK top 20.
The singer also landed a UK top 20 hit in 2021 with ‘Rumors’, her collaboration with Cardi B. Earlier, she reached the UK top 10 with ‘Good As Hell’ in 2019 and returned there in 2022 with ‘Someday At Christmas’.
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Her major label breakthrough album, ‘Cuz I Love You’, which was her third full length release overall, peaked at Number Four in the US and reached Number 30 in the UK. The album’s standout single ‘Truth Hurts’ climbed all the way to Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 and was recently certified diamond in the United States.
On review aggregation platform Metacritic, ‘Bitch’ currently carries a mixed score of 50 out of 100 based on seven published reviews.
Rolling Stone wrote: “‘Bitch’ is full of tired moves and cynical appeals to the streaming algorithm.” Meanwhile, The Telegraph described the record as being “in desperate search of a hit”. The Guardian added that Lizzo’s “scatter-gun approach makes ‘Bitch’ a disjointed listen”.
Not long after the album’s release, Lizzo responded to suggestions that she no longer commands a strong fanbase. The comments came despite the success of ‘Special’, its accompanying arena tour that included two sold out nights at London’s O2, and her high profile Pyramid Stage performance at Glastonbury 2023.
“I actually can answer this: the industry changed so much in the last 3 yrs,” she wrote. “Streaming replaced radio & I was a radio darling. That’s how my fans discovered my music. Not to mention the very obvious & public attack on my career changed things.
“But I’m out here doing my absolute best and u can’t knock a bitch for that.”
Lizzo had previously criticised what she described as “racist” and “fatphobic” algorithms, arguing that they were “destroying the music industry” and making it more difficult to promote new releases.
“Back in the day, which was maybe even just five years ago, we used to get things chronologically,” she wrote.
“Music marketing relies heavily on social media, but now, ever since the algorithm has been showing us things out of order, there’s actually no way to successfully promote an album where everyone knows your album is coming.”
The TikTok post was captioned: “Don’t get me started on how the algorithm is racist & fat phobic.”
Lizzo’s failure to reach the charts in both the US and UK may also be linked to the controversies that have surrounded the singer in recent years.
In 2023, Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez filed a lawsuit against Lizzo, alleging sexual harassment and a hostile workplace environment during the period they worked with her between 2021 and 2023.
Lizzo has strongly denied all allegations. More recently, she pledged to continue fighting the lawsuit brought by the three former dancers, stating that “the truth is less salacious than the headlines”.
In October 2023, she labelled the case a “fabricated sob story” and submitted a motion seeking its dismissal, alleging that the dancers had demonstrated a “pattern of gross misconduct”.
Last month, Lizzo spoke about her promotional efforts for ‘Bitch’, revealing that she had been “interacting with a bunch of stan accounts lately”. She also shared a post claiming she was “actually succeeding in getting people to talk about her again”.
However, she later told fans to “grow up” after some accused her of taking aim at Taylor Swift. Lizzo maintained that she had “never talked shit about any artist” and also denied making negative comments about Olivia Rodrigo.
In other news, Lizzo appears to have responded to criticism from Nicki Minaj on the alternate edition of ‘Bitch’.
