Lizzo Name‑Drops JaNa Craig After Love Island Split — JaNa Shrugs, DM’d the Queen

By Sage Matthews. Of course this happened: pop superstar Lizzo name-checked Love Island USA alum JaNa Craig in a new song and JaNa, wounded, single, and now bizarrely famous again, is taking the compliments with a wary smile.

If you are awake at 2 AM and tired of how the world entertains itself, this is the kind of item that confirms the decline. Cameras caught JaNa Craig at LAX on Wednesday, where she acknowledged that Lizzo included her name in a lyric and called the moment “so crazy.” JaNa said she messaged Lizzo directly to say thank you and to call the singer “my queen,” but as of the interview, no reply had arrived. JaNa also posted a TikTok reacting to the song, leaning into the moment with the kind of composed grin people use when they are internally filing paperwork for emotional damage control.

Let us parse the scene. JaNa, who split from her Love Island USA co-star Kenny Rodriguez in July, made waves previously with an Instagram post that implied betrayal and scheming behind the glossy veneer of a reality romance. Her caption read that she had seen breakup theories but that nothing measured up to “how terrible, disgusting and disappointing it truly is.” She added that discovering the person you loved was not who you thought was “truly devastating.” That public sting is now getting a follow-up appearance in the cultural ether in the form of a Lizzo shout-out.

So what does this mean for JaNa? For one, she is getting a tidal wave of supportive attention. At LAX, when asked if her inbox had filled with suitors, JaNa coyly refused to “kiss and tell” but admitted messages had come from a few verified blue check accounts. She insists she is not rushing into romance, saying she is reflecting, healing, and taking things slow. Her stated romantic criteria are specific: a man with a genuine relationship with God and someone who is not “too much of a public figure.” That last bit reads as a deliberate pivot away from her recent headline-making entanglement.

As for Kenny Rodriguez, who has not publicly commented on Lizzo’s lyric that mentions JaNa, silence can be its own performance art in celebrity culture. The split itself, reported in July and dramatized by JaNa’s candid Instagram, supplied the emotional material that now loops back into the public narrative via music, social media, and paparazzi optics.

Now, the cultural machine reprocesses private pain into public content, Lizzo amplifies a moment of empathy or shade depending on your angle, and JaNa gets both the consolation and the scrutiny. She plays the part well, smiling under the flashbulbs, DMing a megastar, and reminding the world she is healing first before headlines dictate her romantic future.

So no, this is not tragic high art. It is a tidy celebrity ecosystem: breakup, social-media reveal, pop-music name-drop, airport interview, and cautious detachment. We watch and we scroll and we pretend this is entertainment rather than evidence that personal lives are now content pipelines.

Stay tuned. If the universe has taught us anything, it is that this small ripple of attention will either be a footnote or escalate into another rounds of revelations. My money is on escalation. Anyway, can’t wait to see how this gets worse.

Sources: Celebrity Storm and TMZ, JaNa Craig Instagram
Attribution: Ashley Baker (Creative Commons)