According to Lizzo, it’s bad-bitch o’clock. (And thick-thirty.) But it’s also nearly summertime, maybe even in the 1970s.
The three-time Grammy winner unleashed her newest song, “About Damn Time,” on Thursday, and, well, it’s about damn time.
“Have you been feeling stressed? Have you also been feeling sexy? Well I got the remedy for you… I put my whole Lizussy in this one!… ABOUT DAMN TIME IS OUT NOW!” the “Juice” and “Truth Hurts” singer wrote Thursday on Instagram.
The track — with its affirmative, instantly uplifting disco beat — hails from Lizzo’s just-announced fourth album, “Special,” which is slated for July 15. The new song throws back to 1975 and Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” flute solo.
The accompanying music video, directed by Christian Breslauer, also dropped late Thursday. It opens with a sweatsuit-clad Lizzo reluctantly attending a “Stressed and Sexy” support group meeting that she completely turns on its head by manifesting her inner disco diva.
And that brings the technicolor dazzle to a nondescript office building she basically takes over. (We dare you not to bop along.)
Sporting a bouffant and clad in sequins, the 33-year-old singer does the Carlton dance, splits, twerks and moon walks, then plays the flute on top of a swimming pool while surrounded by synchronized swimmers.
“Turn up the music/ Turn down the lights/ I’ve got a feeling/ I’m gon’ be all right/ OK, all right, it’s about damn time,” she sings along to bouncy choreography.
The flautist, who recently launched the size-inclusive shapewear line Yitty, told Apple Music host Zane Lowe that her positive new song “can lead into so many conversations.”
“It’s about damn time I feel better, it’s about damn time we get out this pandemic. It’s about damn time we to get the first Black female Supreme Court justice,” she said. “There’s so many things. It’s about damn time we popped the champagne. It’s about damn time the tequila got here.”
Her fans seemed to agree, with several on Twitter dubbing “About Damn Time” the new song of the summer and a long-awaited track from “a feel good queen.”
The singer also told Lowe that she’s writing songs “about love from every direction” and hopes to “turn a little bit of the fear that’s been running rampant in this world, energetically into love.”
“I had a lot of fear, and I had to do the work on myself, and this music is some of that work in turning that fear into love. I hope that when people listen to this album, it makes their day just a little bit better, a little bit more filled with love,” she said.
The “Good as Hell” and “Rumors” singer will likely be performing the new song when she appears on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. She’ll be doubling as the NBC show’s host and musical guest. She last appeared on “SNL” as a musical guest in 2019, alongside host Eddie Murphy.
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