Lizzo explains 'GRRRLS' lyric change, reveals thoughts on marriage
Lizzo has opened up about the controversy over her song "GRRRLS" and why she adjusted the song's lyrics after fans criticized her for using an ableist slur.
The song originally contained the lyric, "Hold my bag, b----, hold my bag / Do you see this s---? I’m a spaz." The last line has since been changed to "Hold me back" after fans pointed out the word "spaz" is considered offensive to those with certain disabilities.
Lizzo spoke about the lyric controversy in an interview with Vanity Fair for the magazine's November cover story.
"I'd never heard it used as a slur against disabled people, never ever," she said.
"The music I make is in the business of feeling good and being authentic to me. Using a slur is unauthentic to me, but I did not know it was a slur," she continued. "It's a word I've heard a lot, especially in rap songs, and with my Black friends and in my Black circles: It means to go off, turn up."
"I used [it as a] verb, not as a noun or adjective," she added. "I used it in the way that it's used in the Black community. The internet brought it to my attention, but that wouldn't [have been enough] to make me change something."
The term "spaz" is an offensive derivation of the word "spastic," or spasticity. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institute of Health, spasticity is "a condition in which there is an abnormal increase in muscle tone or stiffness of muscle, which might interfere with movement, speech, or be associated with discomfort or pain," and is "usually caused by damage to nerve pathways within the brain or spinal cord that control muscle movement."
Spasticity may be associated with a number of conditions or diseases, including multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, or Krabbe disease.
Lizzo also called out those who continue to criticize her for using the word. "Am I not being an artist and reflecting the times and learning, listening to people, and making a conscious change in the way we treat language, and help people in the way we treat people in the future?" she said.
Two months after Lizzo changed the lyrics to "GRRRLS," Beyoncé changed the lyrics to her song "Heated" for using the same ableist slur.
Elsewhere in her cover story, Lizzo also opened up about her thoughts on marriage and her relationship with boyfriend Myke Wright. The "About Damn Time" singer has known Wright for six years.
"He's everything," she said. "We're just in love. And that's it."
Later in the interview, she called Wright "the love of my life" and said they "are life mates."
Lizzo also said she and Wright would get married if she "wanted to start a business with him" because, in her opinion, getting married is "when your finances come together."
"I'm thinking about the autonomy and independence of him and me," she explained. "How wonderful would it be to be this complete independent person and to come together to make two complete independent people? Not that whole 'You complete me, you're my other half.' No. I'm whole, and you're incredible too."
"We're like the mirror image of each other. We're connected," Lizzo continued. "But that doesn't mean I was incomplete when I met him."
