Lizzo’s New Album Bitch Fails to Chart on Billboard 200

Lizzo’s new album Bitch has failed to chart on the Billboard 200. Released on June 5th, Bitch was her first official album since 2022’s critically and commercially-acclaimed Special, which debuted at No. 2 on the same chart.

Of course, a lot has changed between those releases. In August 2023, one year after the release of Special, Lizzo was sued for sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. “These last few days have been gut wrenchingly difficult and overwhelmingly disappointing,” Lizzo wrote in a lengthy social media statement at the time. “My work ethic, morals and respectfulness have been questioned. My character has been criticized. Usually I choose not to respond to false allegations but these are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed.”

Despite her strongly-worded statement, Lizzo has been fighting an uphill battle ever since. She’s been trying (and failing) to rehabilitate her image, but her latest attempt to launch a comeback has fizzled out in extreme fashion. Just days after Bitch‘s release, Lizzo responded to a tweet that interrogated her precipitous downfall.

“I actually can answer this,” Lizzo tweeted on June 7th. “The industry changed so much in the last 3 yrs. 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.”

In addition to DSPs having an impact, Lizzo also recently pointed to album campaigns suffering at the hands of social media platforms’ non-chronological algorithm. “The algorithm-based way that social media functions now is destroying the music industry,” Lizzo said in a TikTok on May 12th. “Now, when I say the music industry, I don’t mean music culture. I don’t mean the good music that’s out. I don’t mean our ability to connect via social media to music. I’m talking about the actual industry that allows artists to sell their music for profit.”

Lizzo went on to say that she has “a private page with over 280,000 people who follow me because they support me, because they love me.” She stated that she’s been heavily promoting her album and that even the people on this private page who want to buy her album, and want to see her on tour, are not seeing her promotional videos.

Not sure where those hundreds of thousands of fans scurried off to when it came to buying the album, but they’re probably still spinning Lizzo’s previous hits: the earworm smash “Truth Hurts” just reached diamond status on June 15th.