WomenOutLoud! : Lizzo

Melissa Jefferson otherwise known as Lizzo, is an American singer and rapper. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Houston with her family when she was ten years old. After college she decided to move to Minneapolis, where she began her recording career in hip hop music. Prior to signing with Nice Life Recording Company and Atlantic Records, Lizzo released two studio albums—Lizzobangers (2013) and Big Grrrl Small World (2015). Lizzo’s first major-label EP, Coconut Oil, was released in 2016.

Lizzo received mainstream success with her third studio album, Cuz I Love You (2019), which spawned the singles “Juice” and “Tempo”. The deluxe version of the album included Lizzo’s 2017 single “Truth Hurts” which became a viral hit. It topped the US charts and became the longest-leading solo song by a female rapper. Around this time, her 2016 single “Good as Hell” also climbed the charts, reaching the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. Lizzo received eight nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, the most for any artist that year. In 2021, Lizzo released the single “Rumors” featuring Cardi B, which debuted in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100.

Now Lizzo has embarked on her fourth studio album called ‘Special‘. The lead single “About Damn Time”, reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The album reached number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, becoming, at the time, the highest-charting album by a female artist in 2022, as well as the largest week by units earned, among all albums released by women in 2022.

In a radio interview Lizzo spoke about how the title for the album was contrived stating it was originally called In Case Nobody Told You until Max Martin helped her “restructure” the hook of the song “Special”, which she then changed the title of the album to.

Even at the peak of her fame in 2022, Lizzo said on ‘The Angie Martinez Show’, she mourns aspects of her old life. She continued to say “The intimacy of autonomy.. you lose that,” she said. “I don’t think people even realise it because everyone has it. So I think losing that.. there were little things like when we would go on tour, we would be in different cities and my and my friends or my glam team and the dancers would go try different restaurants. And it would be like ‘Ok let’s just walk down here’ and it’s like ‘Ok cool meet you in the lobby in 15’. I couldn’t do that anymore because first I had to tell security and then security had to call a car and then we had to call the restaurant in advance and make special reservations and it was like two hours of our time and I was like ‘Just go without me y’all’. It’s like I’m a burden to my friends.”

In March 2022, Lizzo’s debuted her reality show ‘Watch Out For The Big Grrrls’, it premiered on the streaming service Amazon. The show took out the award for Outstanding Competition Program at the 2022 Emmys. “When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media. Someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me,” she said in her acceptance speech. “If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, It’d be ‘you’re gonna see that person, but b*tch, it’s gonna have to be you.’”

One thing is for certain, Lizzo is special to a lot of people all around the world; a true inspiration and continues to be a positive influence on a lot of women and men globally. We salute you Lizzo.

Email: neill@outloudculture.com

Socials: @neillfrazer