July 30, 2019 at 03:53AM
For so long, Lizzo has been, as she puts it, "that subliminal artist."
The 31-year-old singer, songwriter, flutist and inadvertent cheerleader for body positivity has been making music for years, but it took a while for much of the industry to take note.
That song that makes you want to wink at yourself in the mirror, put on your shiniest mini-dress and break up with your boyfriend? That's probably a Lizzo song. And once you learn her name (she was born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, by the way), you hear her empowering hits everywhere.
Now, she's a Video Music Awards nominee (up for best new artist) who made waves with recent MTV and BET Awards performances (Rihanna gave her a standing ovation), worked with Absolut on a Juice drink collaboration ("Juice" is a song of hers) and finished the first leg of her North American tour (which features her classically trained flute playing, often paired with twerking).
She plays Gallagher Way, 3635 N. Clark St., at 3 p.m. Aug. 10 and, after a finger-quotes "break" from the road and time in the studio, continues touring in September, playing the Aragon Ballroom Sept. 28 and Sept. 29.
In an interview, she spoke about knowing she's in the spotlight and trying to keep up the momentum.
Unheard of — until suddenly she's everywhere
"I've had syncs in movies and commercials and television shows since I first started, but nobody knew who I was," she says over salad and fries (which she says are for sharing should I "get a hankering").
Lizzo's first single with Atlantic Records, "Good As Hell," came out in 2016.
"I feel like people have always liked me for my personality, ha!" she says. "But I also wanted them to know that I make songs. Now, my notoriety has caught up with me."
Once you start paying attention, you realize Lizzo's songs from her April release "Cuz I Love You" are all over the radio and have been used in a number of movies and TV shows. They are, for instance, showcased in the female-driven, female-directed comedies "Little" ("Like a Girl"), "BookSmart" ("Boys") and "Someone Great" ("Truth Hurts").
"That's feminism, where we can just pull each other up in this industry," she says.
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Her single 'Truth Hurts' is charting nearly two years after its initial release
Even more to Lizzo's point: The latter song, a catchy hip-hop track that proclaims, "I just took a DNA test, turns out I'm 100 percent that b----," hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 ... nearly two years after its initial release. (It also has been included in the "Cuz I Love You" EP.) The 2017 single has even been made eligible for the next Grammys.
Back in the studio but coy on details
She's been celebrating the song's success in the perfect place: the recording studio, where she's working on new music.
"I have ideas," she says, playing it cagey. "I'm not gonna get into it yet. It's too early to say."
But she does say the sound is "really different" because she's teaming up with new collaborators.
Getting personal online makes fans feel connected
Lizzo posted the chart news of "Truth Hurts" on Instagram, where she also posts clips from her shows and plenty of photos of her barely clad self, including a recent one in which she's wearing a little more than nipple covers in a photo captioned: "I'm hefty!"
It's a post that fits what has become Lizzo's personal brand: self-empowerment and inclusion for all.
"It doesn't matter what size you are,," she says "If you're a woman, if you identify as a woman, you have experienced some sort of marginalization or trauma or struggle in this country. Period. I think people ... look at a Victoria's Secret model, and they're, like, 'She has everything.'
"But you don't understand the type of pressures and the type of bullying that she deals with on her end. It's not the same, but they still are experiencing something. I'm trying to empower everyone."
She also posts about days when she's feeling vulnerable. As a result, fans feel an intimate kinship.
In public, "They don't go, 'Oh, my God, are you Lizzo?' They be like: 'Lizzo!' I turn around, and I'm, like, 'Huh?'
"This happened at the airport," she says. " 'You don't know me, I just wanted to say hi.' I was, like, 'Girl, why you talkin' to me like you my mama?' People really just feel close to me. And that's cool. Buy my album!"
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/18353118/LizzoFlute.jpg)
Read more at USA Today.
For so long, Lizzo has been, as she puts it, "that subliminal artist."
The 31-year-old singer, songwriter, flutist and inadvertent cheerleader for body positivity has been making music for years, but it took a while for much of the industry to take note.
That song that makes you want to wink at yourself in the mirror, put on your shiniest mini-dress and break up with your boyfriend? That's probably a Lizzo song. And once you learn her name (she was born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, by the way), you hear her empowering hits everywhere.
Now, she's a Video Music Awards nominee (up for best new artist) who made waves with recent MTV and BET Awards performances (Rihanna gave her a standing ovation), worked with Absolut on a Juice drink collaboration ("Juice" is a song of hers) and finished the first leg of her North American tour (which features her classically trained flute playing, often paired with twerking).
She plays Gallagher Way, 3635 N. Clark St., at 3 p.m. Aug. 10 and, after a finger-quotes "break" from the road and time in the studio, continues touring in September, playing the Aragon Ballroom Sept. 28 and Sept. 29.
In an interview, she spoke about knowing she's in the spotlight and trying to keep up the momentum.
Unheard of — until suddenly she's everywhere
"I've had syncs in movies and commercials and television shows since I first started, but nobody knew who I was," she says over salad and fries (which she says are for sharing should I "get a hankering").
Lizzo's first single with Atlantic Records, "Good As Hell," came out in 2016.
"I feel like people have always liked me for my personality, ha!" she says. "But I also wanted them to know that I make songs. Now, my notoriety has caught up with me."
Once you start paying attention, you realize Lizzo's songs from her April release "Cuz I Love You" are all over the radio and have been used in a number of movies and TV shows. They are, for instance, showcased in the female-driven, female-directed comedies "Little" ("Like a Girl"), "BookSmart" ("Boys") and "Someone Great" ("Truth Hurts").
"That's feminism, where we can just pull each other up in this industry," she says.
Her single 'Truth Hurts' is charting nearly two years after its initial release
Even more to Lizzo's point: The latter song, a catchy hip-hop track that proclaims, "I just took a DNA test, turns out I'm 100 percent that b----," hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 ... nearly two years after its initial release. (It also has been included in the "Cuz I Love You" EP.) The 2017 single has even been made eligible for the next Grammys.
Back in the studio but coy on details
She's been celebrating the song's success in the perfect place: the recording studio, where she's working on new music.
"I have ideas," she says, playing it cagey. "I'm not gonna get into it yet. It's too early to say."
But she does say the sound is "really different" because she's teaming up with new collaborators.
Getting personal online makes fans feel connected
Lizzo posted the chart news of "Truth Hurts" on Instagram, where she also posts clips from her shows and plenty of photos of her barely clad self, including a recent one in which she's wearing a little more than nipple covers in a photo captioned: "I'm hefty!"
It's a post that fits what has become Lizzo's personal brand: self-empowerment and inclusion for all.
"It doesn't matter what size you are,," she says "If you're a woman, if you identify as a woman, you have experienced some sort of marginalization or trauma or struggle in this country. Period. I think people ... look at a Victoria's Secret model, and they're, like, 'She has everything.'
"But you don't understand the type of pressures and the type of bullying that she deals with on her end. It's not the same, but they still are experiencing something. I'm trying to empower everyone."
She also posts about days when she's feeling vulnerable. As a result, fans feel an intimate kinship.
In public, "They don't go, 'Oh, my God, are you Lizzo?' They be like: 'Lizzo!' I turn around, and I'm, like, 'Huh?'
"This happened at the airport," she says. " 'You don't know me, I just wanted to say hi.' I was, like, 'Girl, why you talkin' to me like you my mama?' People really just feel close to me. And that's cool. Buy my album!"
Read more at USA Today.