Lizzo has admitted it was “soul-crushing” when her latest album, B**ch, failed to chart.
The Juice singer, real name Melissa Jefferson, dropped her fifth studio album on 5 June.
But according to editors at Rolling Stone, B**ch sold just 2,649 copies in its first week, a significant drop compared to her 2022 album, Special, which sold around 39,000 copies in the same period.
Reflecting on the poor response in an interview for the Proto Pop podcast on Sunday, Lizzo recalled how she ramped up efforts to promote the project, but sales still fell short of expectations.
“It dropped, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK, this isn’t kinda what I thought it would be,'” she told host Zachary Hourihane. “I didn’t think it would be crazy, but I also didn’t think it would be this. 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.”
Lizzo – real name Melissa Jefferson – went on to note that she took the response “to heart” and was “really stressed” for a few days.
“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, I think I had to mourn that,” the 38-year-old continued.
However, Lizzo recounted how a phone call from SZA, born Solána Rowe, forced her to change her perspective.
“Thank God for Solána. SZA called me and was like, ‘Hey, you’re on my mind!'” she remembered. “I was like (crying), ‘Am I a failure?’ ‘She was like, ‘Oh my God, no!’ She was so sweet, and I meditated and prayed on it. I was, like, ‘This is why I don’t judge myself and my success, or impact, on numbers because it’s soul-crushing if you do.’ I had to reframe and be like, ‘But aren’t you proud of yourself?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I actually am proud of myself.’ Aren’t you excited to sing these songs? Aren’t you glad they’re out?’ Yeah.”
Lizzo has several other projects in the pipeline.
The Truth Hurts hitmaker is set to release a children’s book titled Lil Lizzo Meets Sasha B. Flootin’ in September and is to play musician Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the upcoming biopic, Rosetta, from Amazon MGM Studios.
