Lizzo‘s latest hit, “About Damn Time,” is a super-fun, disco-flavored bop, but according to her producer, it’s much more than that — it’s what Lizzo felt “the world needed at that exact moment.”
Speaking to Vulture, producer Ricky Reed said “About Damn Time” is “a core song about love.”
“That might seem weird at first, because it’s not explicitly about being in love with a person. But the thing that she really, really, really wanted to get across was, we need a song and a message to help us collectively step out from fear. So what’s the opposite of fear? It’s love,” he says.
Reed adds, “So, our plan with that song was to make a record that helps people step out from fear, step out from darkness, step out from sadness, whatever form it’s taking, and find your power and find love.”
“She thought that’s what the world needed at that exact moment,” Reed explains. “She put a lot of thought into it.”
Overall, Reed says, Lizzo insisted that the album address the “collective trauma” that is the pandemic and then try to “lift people up.”
He notes, “She’d say this over and over: ‘I’m an artist, I have to reflect the times.’ So we would always make sure, at every turn, that we were going to reflect the times. We can’t do that in the last few years without talking about what’s been going on.”
But of course, the album’s not a downer. It’s just that, as Reed explains, “You can’t lift anyone up without getting through the hard stuff first … before you move on to partying.”
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.