On her 38th birthday, Lizzo is making a declaration. Instead of focusing completely on love, the multi-time Grammy winner is letting the world know who she is, with one five-letter word to show for it.
The singer took to Instagram on Monday (Apr. 27) to reveal that her upcoming fifth studio effort would be titled “Bitch.” The title isn’t just a homage to Missy Elliott and her 1999 single “She’s A Bitch” or Meredith Brooks, whose song “BItch” was the No. 2 song in the country for four weeks in 1997 and went on to go gold.
Instead, Lizzo wants the world to know that after her conversation with an individual who supported Donald Trump, she’s leaning all the way in on being a “bitch.”
“Reclaiming the word B-tch is power – it’s taking a label once used to diminish women and turning it into a declaration of confidence, and unapologetic self-love,” Lizzo said in a statement regarding the album title. “So many incredible women in music have used the word for positivity like Meredith Brooks and Missy Elliott. It was only fitting to name my album B-tch because it has become my favorite word when using it on my own terms and because I am 100% that b-tch!”
On Instagram, the “Cuz I Love You” singer shared a photo of a Black woman’s hand, with an imposed image of herself, arms aloft, representing the middle finger.
In her January Substack post, she ripped off the band-aid and censored herself regarding the President. An ardent supporter of former Vice President Kamala Harris, the musician has been vocal about other celebrities leaning into MAGA waters, calling out Nicki Minaj for supporting Trump.
“A Bitch’s prickly confidence shakes the core of evil,” the artist wrote in her essay. “You can’t shame a Bitch by calling her bitch, because she knows she is. You cannot hurt Ms. Bitch anymore, she is impervious to words.”
She continued, “I want to wear Bitch like a suit of armor adorned with battle scars of my healed trauma,” she continued. “I’ve toiled in the armory banging the dents, I remember the pain. I am more than okay with it. I celebrate it. A Bitch knows exactly when to get angry, and frankly we ain’t angry enough.”
“Bitch” replaces “Love In Real Life,” the reportedly shelved album from the singer, which featured singles “Still Bad” and the title track. In a 2025 interview with New York Magazine, she revealed that “Still Bad” felt “overproduced” and that “Love In Real Life” was written in 2022. In its place came a rap-heavy mixtape, “My Face Hurts From Smiling,” released last June.
“By 2025, I’ve changed, the world has changed so much, and so much has happened,” Lizzo said at the time. “And not that I felt disconnected from anything that I put out, because I created it, but it just wasn’t what I was feeling right now. I was like, I need to do sh-t differently and I don’t know what it is, but I’m going to just start following my instincts.”
Those instincts now include reclamation of a word that has had its fair share of controversy within the Black community in recent years. It might not be fully understood how “BItch” will sound compared to her 2022 album “Special” or even “My Face Hurts From Smiling.” But Lizzo is focused on reclaiming not just her time, but a phrase she’s reengineering to fit her current outlook on the world at large.
