Lizzo: 'I won't let anything destroy me'

2026-07-11T20:53:36Z

The impact of the 2023 ex-dancers' lawsuit is clear to see. Nobody could have imagined that Lizzo’s follow-up to Special would fail to chart.
Lizzo was asked if she feels she has pulled through the worst of it, and if she is happy today. “Yeah, I’m happy. It’s not unique to go through a sad period in your life. Everyone goes through loss, friendship breakups. Everyone’s been lied on. I just experienced it in front of the world. But I’m not going to let anything destroy me. I’m divinely protected and I’m happy.”

For her the impact of the accusations and the impact of fame are one and the same thing. Lizzo believes the allegations about her behaviour and the way she treated her ex-dancers came about because of her fame. And now Lizzo believes that critics have reviewed new album purely through the lens of the scandal. She insists that the critics are wrong to search every song for references to the allegations.

• "You get to a level of fame and celebrity when your fame overshadows your art. And I'm there! Ha!" "I never signed up to be just a famous person. I was always, like, I'm going to make art for ever. So when my fame precedes me as an artist it can be uncomfortable, because people care more about what I said than what I made."

• "I will put out music and the critique of it is never really about the music: it's more about me. And I think that comes with being this level of famous. I don't think it's unique to me. There's 'I don't like this person'. And it's, like, why? It's not because they made a bad song; you just don't like them. And now you don't like their song. It's an interesting phenomena, but now I'm settling into it."

• "Everything was unexpected. The Grammies, unexpected. The number ones, unexpected. The fame, unexpected. The public scrutiny, unexpected. The one thing I did expect was being a fat, black, happy girl, they were going to try to take that away from me. They were always going to try to tear me down. I always knew, from when I was a non‑famous person, that that makes people uncomfortable. So I kind of signed up for that part."

Although the the case is still proceeding Lizzo says she's already ahead of the rest of the world. While we're still obsessed with the allegations and the impact on her, she has moved beyond that. "I get it. It is a big thing that happened to me. But it's so behind me. Maybe it's not behind the general public or the media, but it's so behind me."

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jul/11/lizzo-interview-answers-critics-accusations-fat-black-happy-girl-tear-me-down