While the performer of lyrics is referred to as a vocalist, the person who writes the lyrics is known as a lyricist. Not surprisingly, another perhaps more familiar word for lyricist is “songwriter.” As with singing the lyrics of a song, there can be more than one lyricist or songwriter responsible for writing the lyrics. The lyricist (or the multiple lyricists) is also the person to whom the lyrics’ intellectual rights (also known as copyright) belong.