The record’s absence from the chart marks a steep commercial decline from 2022’s ‘Special.’ Lizzo points to streaming’s rise and algorithmic social feeds as root causes, but the story may be more complex.
Lizzo’s album Bitch, released a couple of weeks ago, did not enter the latest Billboard 200. The absence is notable: her previous album, Special, debuted at No. 2 on the same chart in 2022. Between then and now, the pop star has faced a career-derailing lawsuit for sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment, filed by her former dancers in 2023. Her public rehabilitation efforts have so far not translated into comparable commercial heat.
Responding to a tweet about the dramatic drop, Lizzo offered her own analysis. She argued the industry has shifted substantially—streaming, she said, has overtaken radio, the medium that originally propelled her to fame. “I was a radio darling,” she wrote. “Streaming replaced radio & that’s how my fans discovered my music.” She also blamed a public campaign against her career. Her critique extended to social media: in a recent TikTok, she claimed that non-chronological algorithms are “destroying the music industry” from a sales perspective by hiding promotional content from followers. She cited a figure of 280,000 people who wanted to buy her album or see her on tour but weren’t being shown her videos.
While the algorithmic impact on artist-to-fan communication is real,
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ROMBO Editorial Staff
The collective voice behind ROMBO Magazine’s news, reviews, features, and cultural coverage.
