Surely, in the year of our lord 2019, you know who lizzo
is. I mean, even if you don’t think you know, girl—you know. Her
song is in that Walmart commercial with the dancing cart people,
and another one is in an ad for GrubHub, and I swear I was watch-
ing a football pregame show and heard strains of the piano riff from
her song “Good as Hell” twinkling in the background. She’s on the
soundtrack at your Zumba class, her voice is blaring from the head-
phones of the guy across from you on the train, and your daughter
is locked in her bedroom scream-singing, “I just took a DNA test/
Turns out I’m 100% that bitch,” from Lizzo’s No. 1 hit, “Truth Hurts,”
in her mirror right now.
But right n o w, Lizzo, 31, is with me—literally—tucked away in a
studio on a dead-end street on a warm December afternoon in Dal-
las. I didn’t get dressed up, because what does a regular person wear
to meet Lizzo? I don’t own any diamond-encrusted booty shorts or
full-length feather coats. Is it even legal to introduce yourself to Lizzo
while wearing yoga pants you bought two years ago at Kohl’s? She,
meanwhile, is head to toe in Gucci, hair laid and lips glossed, flanked
on either side by her gorgeous glam team. Lizzo is everything you
want her to be: loud, fun, effervescent, all the synonyms you can use
for the words loud, fun and effervescent.
ENTERTAINER
OF THE YEAR
Lizzo
POP’S QUEEN OF SELF-LOVE
CHANGED HOW WE SEE OURSELVES
By Samantha Irby
PHO T O GR A PH BY PAOLA KUDACKI F OR T I M E
