The Emmy and Grammy award-winning performer Lizzo seems to have announced her departure from entertainment via a post on her Instagram that ended with: “I QUIT.”
“I’m getting tired of putting up with being dragged by everyone in my life and on the internet,” the singer and flautist wrote. “All I want is to make music and make people happy and help the world be a little better than how I found it. But I’m starting to feel like the world doesn’t want me in it.
“I’m constantly up against lies being told about me for clout and views … being the butt of the joke every single time because of how I look,” she continued.
“My character being picked apart by people who don’t know me and disrespecting my name. I didn’t sign up for this shit.”
Her post, published on Friday, was met with a flood of supportive comments, including from Paris Hilton, who said: “We love you Queen”, and Kiara Mooring, a contestant on Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, Lizzo’s 2022 competition reality show, who encouraged her to “keep going”.
“Can’t let the haters win, Mama Lizzo. You are loved: keep going,” Mooring said.
Since Lizzo, whose legal name is Melissa Jefferson, gained popularity in the late 2010s with singles such as Truth Hurts and Good as Hell. Her size and choice to wear revealing clothing made her a heroine of the body positivity movement but also the subject of fat-shaming comments and online ridicule.
In May last year, Lizzo locked her Twitter account and threatened to leave the music industry amid a wave of body-shaming comments that speculated about her dietand whether she avoided losing weight because it would not be advantageous to her brand.
Lizzo followed up her online clapbacks with an Instagram post of her on stage at a concert holding a sign that read: “I’m sorry people on Twitter suck. You are beautiful and special.”
The post was captioned: “I will never shut up about how difficult y’all make it for fat people to simply exist. Minding your business is free. If the internet was limited and one comment took 24hrs to post, I wonder what social media would be like.”
Despite the scrutiny, Lizzo has led a successful career. She has won four Grammy awards, an Emmy for Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, and she performed the opening song in last summer’s Barbie movie.
She was accused of and sued for sexual harassment, racial discrimination and fostering a hostile work environment by her dancers. In September, a former clothing stylist filed a similar lawsuit, alleging that she was subjected to bullying and sexual and racial harassment in an “unsafe, sexually charged workplace culture”.
Lizzo has asked judges to dismiss the lawsuits. But in February a judge denied her motion in the case filed by the former dancers.
Friday’s Instagram post is a stark contrast to one posted on 17 March where she talked about writing new music and thanked her fans for their patience.
“I’m writing some of the best music and I’m so excited for y’all to hear. I’m almost ready to be a normal human again … to be outside … to love and trust people … to try and make new friends … to sing and talk about my pain and joy,” Lizzo’s caption read.
“Just give me a lil more time. Thank u for the patience, and to the ones who unfollowed, thank u too, cus now I know where we stand.”
