Unfortunately we don’t get to choose how we store weight. Ensure you’re in a healthy deficit and when doing cardio you reach fat burning heart rate. If you can afford it a coach will help keep you accountable and on track as well as reach your goals quicker. Lifting will help with long term looks, it’s not quick at all. Give yourself time and patience.
It sounds like you need to be doing both cardio and lifting still- since you still have fat to lose you should still aim for a calorie deficit ideally through both diet and exercise, and then you still want to lift so that when you do lose the fat your back will look nice. We can’t spot reduce unfortunately and to top it off it seems like we always lose last from the place we want to lose the most lol but you should be aiming for a progressive overload anyways even once you lose all the fat you
I agree! Progressive overload and calorie deficit are the recipe for success! Muscle building has the added bonus of increasing your resting metabolic rate; the more muscle you have the more calories your body needs a day so the easier it is to deficit. With this in mind, make sure you're eating 1g of protein per lb of body weight daily, so your body has the tools it needs to build muscle.