NEED TO KNOW
Lizzo’s return to the music scene didn’t go as she planned.
In a cover story interview with New York published on Monday, Sept. 8, the “Good as Hell” singer opened up about reentering music following multiple lawsuits alleging sexual harassment and bullying behaviors on her world tour.
“I put out those two singles, and it feels like I had a crash course in what putting music out as a pop artist in 2025 looks like, and it’s … interesting,” Lizzo, 37, told the publication. “The industry and the landscape change every year. What worked last year is not going to work this year.”
When the musician, whose full name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, released her 2022 album Special, she knew the “gatekeepers from radio to marketing to media.”
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Fast-forward to 2025 and Lizzo, who released the mixtape My Face Hurts from Smiling in June, said she’s “flying by the seat of my pants.” “Which is crazy because I had three years to plan this s— out, and all of my plans kind of crumbled.”
“I think I needed to drop those songs so I could subvert that expectation of me,” she told the publication of her mixtape, “because, in turn, it created this new discovery that I really wanted. I wanted people to rediscover who I am and fall in love with her all over again.”
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In the years leading up to her return to the music world, Lizzo had been embroiled in multiple lawsuits and has said she struggled to create due to depression.
In August 2023, Lizzo’s backup dancers Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis and Noelle Rodriguez filed lawsuits against the musician for alleged sexual harassment, racial harassment and for creating a hostile work environment.
Lizzo denied the allegations made against her in an Instagram post. “I am not here to be looked at as a victim, but I also know that I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days,” she said in part. “I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not.”
A few weeks after, she was sued by Asha Daniels, a former wardrobe assistant for her dancers, who alleged that her team fostered a “racist and sexualized” work environment while on tour.
Lizzo’s rep told PEOPLE in a statement at the time: “As Lizzo receives a Humanitarian Award tonight from the Black Music Action Coalition for the incredible charitable work she has done to lift up all people, an ambulance-chasing lawyer tries to sully this honor by recruiting someone to file a bogus, absurd publicity-stunt lawsuit who, wait for it, never actually met or even spoke with Lizzo. We will pay this as much attention as it deserves. None.”
She attempted to get the case dismissed in December 2023.
In July, Lizzo’s legal team again filed a motion to dismiss Daniels’ suit, calling it a “meritless” discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit. Though Lizzo is no longer an individual defendant in the suit involving Daniels, her touring company is. New York reports that the trial starts in December.
Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty
Meanwhile, in February 2024, Lizzo filed a motion to get the lawsuit between her and the backup dancers dismissed. Though a few allegations were dismissed, the motion was ultimately denied and the case remained ongoing.
Per Billboard, she then filed an appeal this past June to overturn the 2024 ruling that permitted the backup dancers’ lawsuit to move forward. She claimed it was an “attack” on her “First Amendment right to perform her music and advocate for body positivity.” The appeal is still pending.
