Evenif youhaven’t
activelylistenedtoone
ofhersongs,you’ve
probablyheardoneof
theAmericanartist’s
collaborationswithBig
FreediaorSpeedyOrtiz
orMissyElliott.Oryou’ve
seenoneofhermany
widelysharedTwitter
videosinwhichshe’s
effervescentlyhittingback
atherhatersforthinking
shecan’tplaytheflute,or
sagingherapartment.Or
you’veseenheronlate-
nightTV.Oryou’veheard
herina WeightWatchers
advert.Ona recenttripto
India,I heardtheopening
twinkleof“GoodasHell”
LizzoHaSbeenHereforawHiLe.SHe’SdroppedaLbumS.
Hersongsarealloverthebigandsmallscreens.She’sworkedwithlegends.She’sopened
forSleater-Kinneyontour.She’sgoneviral.It’sjustthatnow,today,Lizzo’sfinallyonthe
cuspofactualmainstreamstardom;youcouldn’tignoreherifyoutried.
umpteentimesa day,as
it wasthesoundtrackto
a Bumbleadcampaign
starringPriyankaChopra.
She’sflippin’everywhere.
Andwhywouldyou
wanttoignoreher?There’s
a reasonshe’sbecome
sopopular,andthat’s
becauseshe’suninhibited- no-hangups-about-it
awesome.Herhitsare
catchy.She’sanincredible
performer.Sheflowswith
charm.She’sunabashedly
horny.There’snothing
nottolove,andinmany
ways,herfameseems
inevitable.Lizzois here.
Butwiththat
presencecomesa lotof
‘I was the fuckIng statue of lIberty lady for lIberty taxes’
expectations, especially
as her brand crystalises
into one of girl power, fun
and body positivity. ‘I’m
realising very quickly that
every single one of these
people wants that good-
energy Lizzo moment,’
she says. ‘And that’s just
not human.’ She’s at the
precipice of true fame
with her new album, Cuz I
L o v e Yo u, and her natural
energy and extroversion
(she is perhaps a textbook
extrovert, saying,
‘Walking into the room
I might’ve been tired, but
as soon as I get to sit down
with you, I get energy
from the fact that youactually care and you’re
a human being’) might
mean fans expect her to
be ‘on’ 24/7. But don’t
worry: if anything,
Lizzo is a professional.
It’s easy to see how
her persona developed.
Firstly, Lizzo just wants
this, to the point that even
when she tried doing
other things, they just
turned into performance.
‘I was the fucking Statue
of Liberty lady for Liberty
Taxes’ she recalls, ‘but
I looked so good that the
owners were like, “You
can’t just stand out here
and spin. You have to be
our ambassador.”’ Lizzo,born Melissa Jefferson,
began rapping as
a teenager in Texas before
moving to Minneapolis,
forming the rap group The
Chalice and later releasing
her first solo album,
Lizzobangers. ‘I guess you
could call it ambition,
but you know, I definitely
have to do music.’
Secondly, Lizzo knows
that her particular brand
of body/black/girl power
positivity is something
that is deeply needed. In
an interview with The New
Yo r k Ti m e s, she says that
she ‘made a commitment
to feel-good music’,
largely because it was
the music she needed to
hear. Hits like “Good as
Hell” and “Truth Hurts”
position her as a fairy
godmother of chutzpah,
infusing listeners with the
confidence to ditch their
shitty boyfriends, love
their bodies, and do what
they want (and in that
particular way that blackEssEntials The Edit