Lizzo Sets Record Straight: Never Talked Trash About Taylor Swift

Sometimes the internet decides a story is real before checking the facts—and Lizzo just had to pump the brakes on one that got completely out of hand.

The 38-year-old artist clapped back over the weekend after fans started spinning a narrative that she’d been talking trash about Taylor Swift, 36, and that this alleged shade somehow tanked the chart performance of her recent record My Face Hurts From Smiling. The whole thing started when someone on X posted chart comparisons with cryptic commentary, and suddenly people were connecting dots that didn’t exist.

“Are you well? First of all I have never talked s*** about Taylor Swift,”Lizzo tweeted on Saturday, May 23, making her position crystal clear. She went further, adding that she’s never dissed any artist, period—and that simply mentioning someone by name doesn’t equal throwing shade.“Just because I mention an artist by name does not mean I’m talking s*** — grow tf up pls.”

The irony here? Lizzo has actually been vocal about her admiration for Swift. Back in 2022 on The Breakfast Club, she joked about being“Black Taylor Swift,”drawing a playful comparison based on how both artists mine their personal lives for songwriting material. She’s also referenced Swift’s re-recording strategy with her new single“Bitch,”joking that it’s“Lizzo’s Version”—a nod to how Swift re-recorded four of her past albums beginning in 2021 after her masters were sold. Swift ultimately purchased her entire discography in May 2025, a milestone she celebrated as reclaiming her life’s work with complete autonomy.

The lesson here feels obvious: not every chart fluctuation needs a villain, and not every artist mention is a diss track waiting to happen. Lizzo’s pushed back hard against the assumption that naming someone in conversation equals beef, and honestly, it’s a fair point. In an industry where every word gets parsed for hidden meaning, sometimes a compliment is just a compliment.