Lizzo
lizzobeeating/Instagram

Lizzo has publicly rejected claims of a feud with Taylor Swift after a viral tweet on Wednesday 22 May accused the rapper of 's***-talking' the pop star and suggested it had damaged her chart performance. The flare-up began on X, formerly Twitter, where Lizzo's music video stats were compared unfavourably with other tracks and then spun by one user into a narrative that she had long been disrespecting Swift.

For context, the latest wave of drama followed months of low‑level speculation that the two women were at odds, usually based on selective quotes or out-of-context clips. Fans of both artists have clashed online before, often reading rivalry into any comment that mentions streaming, touring or 'who's more popular this week.' None of that has ever been backed by anything resembling hard evidence, but in 2024, that has never stopped a fandom pile‑on.

The immediate spark this time was a post celebrating the performance of Lizzo's song 'STFU,' from her album My Face Hurts From Smiling. The X user bragged that 'The Life Of A Showgirl + MY FACE HURTS FROM SMILING — 4.005M' views had been racked up, then contrasted that figure with 'ICEMAN + MAID OF HONOUR + HABIBTI — 683k.' The tone was triumphalist, complete with crown and coffin emojis, and it quickly became ammunition in a wider fan argument about streaming numbers and 'relevance.'

When Lizzo herself stepped into the replies and asked, 'Can someone explain what this means?', another commenter seized the moment to spin a different story entirely. That user claimed her career had stalled because she had supposedly trash‑talked Swift, now 36, and that this alleged behaviour had 'finally caught up' with her. There was no screenshot, no clip, no source, just a confident assertion pitched to an audience primed to believe the worst.

Lizzo Confronts 'Taylor Swift' Rumours Head-On

Lizzo did not let that allegation hang. On Thursday, 23 May, she fired back directly on X, addressing the fan's theory rather than ducking it or offering a vague "no drama" platitude.

'Are you well?' she wrote, in a sharply worded post that cut through the noise. 'First of all I have never talked s*** about Taylor Swift.' She added that she does not speak badly about any fellow artist, stressing, 'Just because I mention an artist by name does not mean I'm talking s*** — grow tf up pls.'

It was a blunt, slightly exasperated response that underlined her frustration with how fast casual online speculation hardens into 'fact.' Nothing in the thread was backed by receipts. Nothing has been confirmed about any private dispute between the pair, and Lizzo's own public comments over the years have been consistently respectful. As far as the available record goes, there is no feud, and that needs to be taken with the appropriate grain of salt when fans start stitching together conspiracy boards.

The irony is that Lizzo has repeatedly aligned herself with Swift, not against her. Back in 2022, during an appearance on US radio show The Breakfast Club, she jokingly referred to herself as the 'Black Taylor Swift,' pointing to the way both songwriters mine their own lives for material. She explained then that even when she sings about exes, she shies away from character assassination, saying she tends to frame it as, 'He's a good person, but this is what he did. Am I tripping?' It was hardly the posture of a covert hater.

Lizzo, 'Bitch (Lizzo's Version)' And A Nod To Taylor Swift

Earlier this month, Lizzo again signalled admiration for Swift's career decisions, this time over music rights. Speaking on the Genius Verified podcast, she revealed that her new single 'Bitch' interpolates Meredith Brooks' 1990s hit and that she has been affectionately referring to it as 'Bitch (Lizzo's Version).'

That subtitle is a clear wink at Swift's headline‑making campaign to re-record her back catalogue after the sale of her masters by Big Machine. Swift has been systematically re‑releasing albums as Taylor's Version since 2021, and according to the report, she was able to buy back her entire discography in May 2025. Lizzo's choice of phrasing only makes sense as a compliment to that strategy, not a dig at it.

If anything, the only time Lizzo has been accused of shading Swift came in June 2023, when she said on Instagram Live that 'the most popular person of today ain't even comparable to what Beyoncé is doing.' Some Swift fans took that as a veiled swipe at the Eras Tour and Speak Now era. It is a flimsy foundation for a feud, built more on fan projection than on what was actually said.

A month later, she went out of her way to pour water on those rumours. During her 'Special Tour' date at Perth's RAC Arena on 14 July 2023, Lizzo spotted a fan holding a sign reading, 'I Chose You Over Taylor Swift Can I Get a Hug.' She did not lean into it. Instead, she praised the crowd for spending serious money to be there and then added, 'Taylor Swift is amazing as well.' She even joked that she should buy the fan tickets to Swift's show too, signing the poster and telling the arena, 'I love TayTay too ... there's no competition here.'

On social media, fans later shared clips of that moment as an example of what they described as 'queen behaviour', arguing that other artists could stand to learn from how she handled a potentially awkward comparison. Rather than weaponise a fan's loyalty, she refused the bait.

Swift, for her part, has been visibly supportive. Cameras caught her enthusiastically singing and dancing during Lizzo's performances at the 2022 MTV VMAs and the 2023 Grammy Awards. That is the verifiable public record, as opposed to the anonymous X posts and inferred slights that currently drive much of the online drama.

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Taylor Swift