Lizzo has hit back at claims she has been speaking disparagingly about Taylor Swift, calling the accusation flatly untrue and telling her critics to “grow tf up.”
The row began on 22 May when an X user posted a comparison of streaming figures, Taylor Swift’s latest album The Life Of A Showgirl alongside Drake’s recent triple release, set against Lizzo’s 2025 mixtape MY FACE HURTS FROM SMILING.
The post included a clip from Lizzo’s STFU music video. Lizzo reshared it and asked her followers what it was supposed to mean.
When one user responded by claiming the numbers showed that “all that s–t talking you did about Tay finally caught up to you,” Lizzo was having none of it.
“Are you well?” she replied.
“First of all I have never talked s–t about Taylor Swift — also while we on the subject I’ve never talked s–t about any artist. Just because I mention an artist by name does not mean I’m talking s–t — grow tf up pls.”
The irony is that the evidence points firmly in the other direction when it comes to Lizzo’s feelings about Swift.
Just days before the exchange, on the 15 May episode of Genius Verified, Lizzo was promoting her new single B*TCH and drew a direct and affectionate comparison to Taylor in the process.
The track introduces Meredith Brooks’ 1997 hit of the same name, and Lizzo wanted to make sure the original artist got her flowers, a decision she framed very deliberately as channelling Swift’s approach to ownership and credit.
“You know how it’s like, ‘Taylor’s Version?'” she said. “It’s like, ‘B*tch (Lizzo’s Version).'”
The admiration goes back further still.
In a 2022 appearance on The Breakfast Club, Lizzo jokingly called herself “Black Taylor Swift,” pointing to their shared habit of drawing on personal relationships and heartbreak as creative fuel.
“I’m Black Taylor Swift,” she said. “I really am, I’m trifling.”
She went on to describe how she approaches writing about exes in a way that felt recognisably Swiftian, noting the experience without entirely torching the person’s reputation.
None of that suggests a woman with an axe to grind. And now she has said as much herself, in no uncertain terms.
