Lizzo Finds Herself In Hot Water Over Lyrics In Her Latest Single

Ever since her breakthrough singles "Good As Hell" and "Truth Hurts," Lizzo has been living the high life as a chart-topping artist. As noted by Vox, the singer became the artist with the most nominations at the 2020 Grammy Awards, racking up eight nominations. On the night, Lizzo won big, taking home three golden trophies.

Kicking off a new era, the "Rumors" hitmaker treated fans to "About Damn Time" in April, which will serve as the lead single for her upcoming album, "Special." Proving to be another smash, the song has peaked at No. 4 on the U.S. Hot 100, as of this writing. "'ABOUT DAMN TIME' IS MY HIGHEST GLOBAL @spotify SONG *EVER,*" Lizzo announced on Instagram, adding, "REALLY SPEAKING THE SONG OF THE SUMMER INTO EXISTENCE." Due for a July 15 release, Lizzo revealed on SiriusXM that she penned around 200 tracks over the past three years for the new album. "I'm really excited and proud of the body of work I've created," she said. "I wanted to make a body of work, I didn't just wanna make a bunch of singles or a bunch of random songs that I thought was the coolest [...] I just wanna only make classics."

Since "About Damn Time," Lizzo has teased the album with another song titled "Grrrls." While the award-winning star can do no wrong in many people's eyes, she unexpectedly rubbed a lot of people the wrong way after using a slur in the lyrics.

Lizzo released the latest single from her forthcoming album, "Special," on June 9. Titled "Grrrls," the lyrical content included the word "spaz," which is considered a slur among the disabled community, per BuzzFeed, leaving fans very disappointed. In the first verse, Lizzo raps, "Do you see this s***? / I'mma spaz."

Disability advocate Hannah Diviney was one of many people upset with Lizzo's choice of words and took to Twitter to share her feelings. "Hey @lizzo my disability Cerebral Palsy is literally classified as Spastic Diplegia (where spasticity refers to unending painful tightness in my legs) your new song makes me pretty angry + sad," she wrote, adding, "'Spaz' doesn't mean freaked out or crazy." Another fan wrote, "Hey @lizzo please remove the word 'spaz' from your new song because it's a slur and really offensive to the disabled community ... From a disappointed fan."

Several listeners recommended that Lizzo remove the word from the song, which ultimately became the case. After seeing the outrage online, the "Good As Hell" hitmaker changed the verse to, "Do you see this s***? / Hold me back." In a tweet shared on June 13, Lizzo made it clear that her intentions weren't ever to "promote derogatory language," explaining she is aware of the power words can have on others. She stated the lyric change was a result of listening to others and taking action.