In a new interview, Lizzo opened up about her latest album’s disappointing commercial performance just four years after she peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
The Grammy Award-winning artist dropped her first album in four years, Bitch, on June 5, but it failed to chart on the Billboard 200 albums chart at all. Speaking to Zachary Hourihane, a.k.a Swiftologist, Lizzo admitted that she was “excited” and had “high hopes” for the first-week performance for Bitch, the follow-up to her 2022 album Special, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart.
“I met my pre-save goal… and then it dropped, and I was like, ‘Oh, okay, this isn’t what I kind of thought it would be,’” she said of the record, which dropped on June 5. “I didn’t think it would be crazy, but I also didn’t think it would be this. And I think that there was, like, 24 hours of my life where I based my success and my worth on a number. And I think that was soul-crushing.”
During its first week of availability, Bitch sold 2,649 pure copies and had a total of 5,000 equivalent album units. It was her first album not to chart on the Billboard 200 chart since her 2015 record, Big Grrrl Small World. In its second week of availability, Bitch moved only 650 album-equivalent units. Lizzo, who has two No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits with “Truth Hurts” and “About Damn Time,” moved 69,000 equivalent album units with her 2022 album Special during its first week of availability.
"I was really stressed, and I was really sad for a few days because I just was like, ‘Wait a minute. This is like, some of my best stuff,'" she told Hourihane. "And I had to come to terms with the fact that not only is the music industry different in the last three years… but also my relationship and my connection musically with the world is different. And I think I had to kind of mourn that."
Despite the disappointing performance, she’s not letting the setback get the best of her, and she’s planning to record new music.
“I'm not afraid of failure anymore because I've already won. And I think that's something that the general public may not believe or understand about me,” she added.
