A year ago this month, Lizzo declared “I quit” on social media after “being dragged by everyone in my life and on the internet.” Now she’s saying, “Let’s turn this pain into some champagne, baby,” on “Still Bad,” her second single after a couple of years’ worth of legal drama, when a wardrobe assistant alleged she fostered a hostile work environment on the road. (Lizzo denied the claims.)
On “Still Bad,” though, she’s getting over a tough breakup set to a disco-pop beat, composed by the same producers as on “About Damn Time,” that’s vaguely reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” (which might explain the “Still” in the title.) “I don’t need him, I need a drink,” she sings in the chorus. And she homes in on a Gloria Gaynor–influenced message later in the song: “I’m still surviving, and I’m still bad, baby/So bitch, I can’t complain … Plot twist, I’m doing great.”
“Recording ‘Still Bad’ was interesting because it started off as a country song and it was like, ‘I don’t need him, I need a drink,’” she explained in an Apple Music 1 interview. “You know what I mean? I think this song is so interesting because like it was just, the sentiment was more important than the sound. The lyrics had to come from that, ‘I lost my dog, I need some whiskey,’ kind of like deep sadness or country kind of rhetoric.” She went on to say she could record an album’s worth of “Still Bad” versions.
Lizzo’s upcoming Love in Real Life album, though, contains other songs, too, including the previously released title track. She’s debuting the material at concerts in three cities — Los Angeles, New York, and Minneapolis — this week.
At the L.A. date on Wednesday, the singer acknowledged the difficult times that made her want to quit without specifically referencing them. Los Angeles Times reports she told the crowd she’d been in “such a dark depression.”
“I was so heartbroken by the world, and so deeply hurt that I didn’t want to live anymore, and I was so deeply afraid of people that I didn’t want to be seen,” she said, according to the paper. “Eventually, I got over that fear, I went to a concert, kind of like this… and as I was walking through the crowds and something miraculous happened: someone I didn’t know, looked at me and said ‘Lizzo, I love you.’”
She also reflected on how her hardships changed her in the Apple 1 Music interview. “I feel like I’ve also changed [in the past two years], and I’ve also promised to change,” she said. “I’ve always promised my fans, I’ve always promised the world, I always promised myself that I would change because I owe it to myself. I am the best version of Melissa ‘Lizzo’ Jefferson right now. Not because of anything external or superficial, but because of the work that I’ve done on myself as a human being and the life that I’ve lived. I’m really proud of this version of myself. I cannot wait to just show her to the world and for people to get to know me for real this time.”
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