Lizzo is back. After highly publicized legal battles and her Barbie song “Pink,” the pop singer returns with her first new song in two years. Doubling as the lead-single for a forthcoming album of the same name, “Love in Real Life” arrives with a Colin Tilley-directed music video that pays homage to Michael Jackson’s iconic “Thriller” video, with Lizzo dressed in black lace and leather, leading a group of dancers through an alley, and surviving attacks by face-melting characters. Watch it below.
Apart from her Barbie contribution, Lizzo hasn’t released any music since her album Special came out in 2022. That said, she did join Incubus onstage in Los Angeles in 2023 for a flute cameo during “Aqueous Transmission” and broke out the instrument during an episode of The Simpsons.
In August 2023, Lizzo was sued by three former dancers for sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. The pop star called the allegations “as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed” in a statement on social media, and then issued a formal denial in court.
In a second lawsuit filed, in September 2023, by a different former employee who worked in Lizzo’s wardrobe department on tour, named Asha Daniels, claimed that she was sometimes refused breaks during 20-hour shifts, and that she overheard racist and fatphobic comments from members of her team. In December 2024, a California federal judge ruled that Daniels did not have the standing to sue Lizzo as an individual in that workplace harassment lawsuit because she named the musician’s production company and payroll company as her direct employers, not the pop star.
Revisit the 2019 Pitchfork article “Lizzo’s 10 Best Flute Videos.”