Along with your vocal talent and empowering
songs, your high-octane performances have made
you a star! Onstage, how do you manage singing,
rapping and twerking—and playing the flute?
I don’t know. [Laughs] I’ll be tired, man, trying to
find my breath when I can! And this is no shade, but
people will tag me in videos of them twerking and
playing the flute, and they can’t do it! So I’m like,
“Damn. I’m really talented.” I was in a very com-
petitive marching band in Houston, and my band
director would make us put our hand on our stom-
ach and say “ho, ho, ho” to really feel our diaphragm
muscles working. I think it came from that!
You just scored your first Top 10 hit with
“Truth Hurts”—almost two years after
it came out! It really blew up after Gina
Rodriguez danced to it in Netflix’s rom-com
Someone Great.
Who would have thunk? What a moment in
a movie can do for an artist is crazy. I had ev-erything else: the hard work, the good music—but
then there’s that extra-special magic that nobody
really knows what it is that can really change your
life. It was a long road. The day I released “Truth
Hurts” was probably one of the darkest days I’ve
had ever in my career. I remember thinking, “If I
quit music now, nobody would notice. This is my
best song ever, and nobody cares.” Now the song
that made me want to quit is the song that every-
one’s falling in love with me for, which is such a
testament to journeys: Your darkest day turns into
your brightest triumph.
You’ve been open about depression on social
media. How do you manage mental illness?
I practice self-love. I look in the mirror and say, “I
love you. You’re beautiful. You can do anything.”
Tell yourself that on your happy days so that you
have the strength to tell yourself that on your
darker days. Reaching out to people when you’re
depressed is really hard; I would shut myself away
from friends and family. So I’ve been working on
communicating with the people who love me.
You’re such a proponent for self-love.
But let’s talk about romance: Are you involved
with anyone?
I’m a very, very single bitch. But even if I were
in a relationship, I’m a single-minded indi-
vidual, and I really like my freedom. I think
there’s a lot of people that need to be in re-
lationships and need to be in love. I want it
sometimes, but I don’t need it. •Lizzo’s June 23
performance
of “Truth
Hurts” at the
BET Awards
stole the show
and went viral.Lizzo will hit the
stage as a stripper
with the star-studded
cast of Hustlers
(out Sept. 13).Born in Detroit,
Lizzo (as a toddler)
and her family
relocated to
Houston when she
was a child.The star (in Leeds,
England, in 2014)
released two solo
albums and toured
for years before
scoring her major-
label recording
contract.66 August 5, 2019 PEOPLE
BEC
OM
ING
LIZZO
and “Juice”) that provided soundtracks for Super
Bowl ads and movies. She released her acclaimed
major-label debut album in April, Cuz I Love You, a
genre-hopping burst of soulful girl power. Now the
confident, ever-candid star—who’ll next appear in
the stripper-themed movie Hustlers alongside Jen-
nifer Lopez and Cardi B—is ready to take on the
world. “Nobody knew who I was,” she says. “Two
years later I have songs on the charts and a platinum
record. It’s crazy.”Embracing
Body
Positivity
Since breaking
out, Lizzo (who
posed nude for
her Cuz I Love You
album art, below)
has become an
icon for body
positivity, though
the concept
somewhat
confuses her. “I
say I love myself,
and they’re like,
‘Oh my gosh,
she’s so brave.
She’s so political.’
For what? All
I said is ‘I love
myself, bitch!’ ”
she previously
told New York
Magazine.