Empowering body-positivity and iconic style in pop culture and pop music - Lizzo

#lizzo #usa

Lizzo is a Grammy Award winning flutist, rapper and a singer who has become an international sensation with her body-positive anthems and empowering lyrics. She is an American-born hip-hop artist and a rapper. She has been praised for her unapologetic embrace of her curves and her message of self-love. She has inspired millions of people around the world, esp. women, to embrace their own body as it is. Today, we'll take a small peek into the life of Lizzo and learn from her journey into the music world.

Real Name : Melissa Viviane Jefferson

Screen name : Lizzo

Born : April 27, 1988

Height : 5 foot 10 inches (5’10”)

Status : In a relationship with TV Host Myke Wright

Parents : Michael Jefferson (father) and Shari Johnson-Jefferson

Siblings : Vanessa Jefferson (older sister) and Michael 'Mikey' Jefferson (older brother)

Career highlight : Truth Hurts

Lizzo produces music in the genres of funk, hip-hop, R&B, pop and soul. She started off as a flute player and a rapper but eventually took to singing. Her inspiring musical figures are Beyonce, Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott. As for her inspiration into fashion, she has cited Diana Ross.

Brief background

Lizzo was born Melissa Viviane Jefferson in Detroit (Michigan, USA) in the year 1988. She began playing the flute at quite a young age and performed in her high school marching band. After graduating from high school, she attended the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities, USA), where she studied music education. However, she dropped out after two years to pursue a career in music.

Her family moved to Houston, Texas in the year 1998. Soon after college, she moved to Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA) and began performing as a rapper and singer. She released her debut album 'Lizzobangers' in the year 2013. The album was a huge success and it helped to establish her as a rising star in the hip-hop scene.

Music career

In the year 2015, she released her second studio album 'Big Grrrl Small World'. The album was even more successful than her debut album. It featured the hit singles like 'Mykki Blanco' and 'Good As Hell'. Then, she was able to release her next studio album in the year 2016, which was titled 'Coconut Oil'.

In the year 2019, Lizzo released her third album 'Cuz I Love You'. The album was a commercial success and it brought her mainstream success. The songs 'Juice' and 'Tempo' was from this album. In 2017, she had dropped a single track called 'Truth Hurts', which was published in her 2019's album. Truth Hurts became a flaming viral track immediately upon being featured on this album. It became the longest-leading solo track by a female rapper in the USA back then.

Lizzo's T4T sticker at a Toronto (Canada) bus stop

In the year 2021 (post-COVID), she dropped a single titled 'Rumors' which had a collaboration with fellow-artist Cardi B in it. Then, in the year 2022, she released her fourth studio album which was titled as 'Special'. The lead single on this album was 'About Damn Time' which went to reach number one on Billboard Hot 100. Her previous year's album Rumors was also able to hit the top five on Billboard Hot 100 immediately upon it's debut.

Awards

To begin with, she had won the newspaper City Pages' 'Picked To Click' award for the best new Twin Cities (Minneapolis-Saint Paul area) artist in the year 2013. In 2016, Lizzo had received 8 nominations for the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. That was the highest number of nominations for any artist in the year 2016. Lizzo has won 3 Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Solo Performance for Truth Hurts, Best Traditional R&B Performance for 'Jerome' and Best Urban Contemporary Album for Cuz I Love You.

She was confered the 'Entertainer Of The Year' in the year 2019 by Time Magazine due to her music and skyrocketing popularity. She won 'Grammy Award For Record Of The Year' in the year 2022. The last time a black female artist who had won the same award was Whitney Houston in the year 1994. She won the 'Prime Time Emmy Award For Outstanding Competition Program' for the reality show Lizzo's Watch Out For Big Grrrls.

In the year 2020, she earned 11 nominations at the '2020 Billboard Music Award'. She won the 'Top Song Sales Artist' award on it. In total, she had won 4 Grammy Awards as of the year 2024. She has also bagged 2 'Soul Train Music Awards', a 'Billboard Music Award' and a 'BET Award' each throughout her career so far.

Lizzo in movies and TV

Apart from having a music career, she held a brief stint as an actress. In the year 2019, she featured in 2 movies namely Hustlers and UglyDolls. Hustlers is a comedy-crime movie while UglyDolls is an animated movie. She voiced the character Lydia in UglyDolls and played the character Liz in Hustlers. Amazon Prime Video put out a show titled 'Lizzo's Watch Out For The Big Grrrls', which was hosted by Lizzo. The show won her an Emmy Award too (as mentioned before). In the year 2019, she featured on a Netflix movie called 'Someone Great'. What featured on the movie was her song 'Truth Hurts'. After the movie, this track has become a very viral song.

Inspired since childhood

She got into music from really early on. When she was just 10 years old, she was sent to learn the flute. She kept learning it for the next 8 years. In the year 2002, she was 14 years old and she formed a small music group with her friends. They called themselves as 'Cornrow Clique'. 4 years later when she turned 18, she began rapping. By then, she had graduated out of school too. She simultaneously enrolled into University Of Houston to study classical music. 

When she turned 21 in 2009, her father happened to unfortunately pass away. Conditions turned dire for her from thereon. She began to live in a car. For the next whole year, she was struggling to make a break into the music industry. It is suspected that it might have led her to even drop out of college in 2011. However, a year before that in 2010, she had an opportunity to perform as a lead vocalist and play the flute in a group named Ellypseas. It was a five member music group. Also, in 2011, she migrated to the city of Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA).

Lizzo in collaborations and groups

In 2002, at the age of 14, she formed a musical group with her friends which was called Cornrow Clique. That was her maiden participant in a group or a band. In the years 2009 and 2010, she was one of the five-member music group called Ellypseas. In 2011, she was part of an electro-genre group called 'Lizzo & The Larva Ink' and it consisted another musician apart from herself. So it was a duo group. At the same time, she was able to create and became part of a trio-rap group called Chalice. They were able to drop their first album in 2013 as a group. Same year in 2013, she became the member of a hip-hop group called Grrrl Prty. She was part of this five member group upto 2016, when Grrrl Prty disbanded. They released a few tracks in that period.

A music producer named Lazerbeak has a band and Lizzo went on performances singing for his band. This was in the year 2013. Same year, towards the end of 2013, she had the opportunity to perform with St. Paul And The Broken Bones in the song 'A Change Is Gonna Come Soon'. In the year 2014, she took part in a project titled 'What's Underneath'. It was a project by StyleLikeU. It was project about embracing one's body shape and it inspired her to release the track 'My Skin' later on. 

She was able to work with the late Prince along with her ex-group members from Chalice. They briefly regrouped to perform on the song BoyTrouble. The song was on Prince's and 3rdeyegirl's album titled Plectrumelectrum. In the year 2015, she collaborated with Your Smith (formerly Caroline Smith) to make 'Let 'Em Say'. It featured in Season 3 premiere of the US TV-sitcom called Broad City. 

In the year 2016, Atlantic Records signed Lizzo up and as a result was out the album titled 'Coconut Oil'. From this album, it's lead song 'Good As Hell' as a soundtrack of the movie 'Barbershop : The Next Cut' (2016). She collaborated in writing each songs on the album along with Christian Rich, Dubbel Dutch, Jesse Shatkin and Ricky Reed. In the year 2018, she performed in a collaboration alongside 'Florence And The Machine' and 'Haim'.

In the year 2020, she was signed up by Amazon Studios to develop new projects in collaboration with them. The result of which was the unscripted reality show called 'Lizzo's Watch Out For The Big Grrrls'. A member of the band ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ named Nick Zinner developed pneumonia and was replaced by Lizzo. In the year 2023, she collaborated with the American singer-songwriter Solana Imani Rowe or SZA. Lizzo was a contributing producer and writer to SZA's album titled SOS. She co-wrote SOS's song called F2F. 

Appearances, performances and tours

Lizzo has turned out to be a big star from the music industry. At the helm of her musical career, she was in great demand in the market. She was constantly getting featured on screen. The decade between 2012 and 2022 was highly fruitful for Lizzo as a celebrity. Below is a list of all her famous appearance, performances and tours.

1) In the early years of the 2010s, she performed with the electro genre duo Lizzo & The Larva Ink.

2) In the year 2012, she performed as a member in the trio Rap and R&B group ‘Chalice’.

3) Lizzo was a member of the hip-hop group ‘Grrrl Party’ which performed it’s final show at Rock The Garden.

4) She toured the UK and USA in the year 2013 in the opening of ‘Har Mar Superstar', where she sang for the producer Lazerbeak’s band.

5) That same year in 2013, she performed with St. Paul And The Broken Bones for the song A Change Is Gonna Come Together.

6) She appeared in an interview with Vice (a Canadian-US lifestyle magazine) in the year 2014 to talk about body image.

7) In the same year of 2014, she appeared as a musical guest on the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’.

8) In the year 2016, MTV had a live-music performance series called ‘Wonderland’, where Lizzo was one of the hosts.

9) In the year 2017, she went on a ‘Good As Hell Tour' for the promotion of her album Coconut Oil.

10) In May 2017, she headlined ‘EEEEEATSCON’ which is an annual food festival by a New York based restaurant recommendation website company called Infatuation.

11) The same year in 2017, she appeared as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race (10^th season).

12) In early part of the year 2018, she toured with Florence And The Machine and HAIM.

13) In June 2018, she appeared in a campaign called ‘Say It Louder’ from a Los Angeles based online retailer called ModCloth.

14) In the same month of June 2018, she performed at NYC Pride’s ‘Pride Island Event’, where she appeared in the first plus-size outfit for Fashion Institute of Technology’s (FIT, New York) Future Of Fashion Runway Show.

15) She appeared on Teen Vogue Music Issue that same month and year in June 2018.

16) In the year 2019, she got into acting and gave her voice performance in the animated movie UglyDolls.

Lizzo performing at the MTV VMA in 2019

17) That same year in 2019, Lizzo engaged in a supporting role for comedy-crime movie Hustlers.

18) After the month of April in 2019, she performed for the first time at the Coachella Music Festival.

19) She performed her song Truth Hurts using her flute in the 2019 BET Awards.

20) In 2019, Lizzo performed on the West Holts stage at the Glastonbury Festival.

21) She headlined the pride events at Indianapolis and Sacramento in the year 2019.

22) Lizzo performed a medley of her songs Good As Hell and Truth Hurts at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards.

23) She was a musical guest on the December 21^st, 2019 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Eddie Murphy.

24) In the year of January 2020, she went on tour in Australia and New Zealand, where she headed the FOMO Festival held in 4 Australian cities and Auckland (NZ).

25) Lizzo performed a “sold-out” show in Sydney Opera House that year and also it was a stage where she had earlier played her flute as a child.

26) She opened the ‘62^nd Annual Grammy Awards’ with a medley of her songs Cuz I Love You and Truth Hurts in January 2020.

27) In the year 2021, she appeared on an interview with the magazine ‘Variety’.

28) Lizzo reappeared as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live on the April 16^th, 2022 episode.

29) She performed in a cosmic light show event for her 4^th album titled ‘Special’ at New York’s Cipriani 25 Broadway and the event was called ‘Lizzoverse’, which also got livestreamed on Twitch.

30) Lizzo was invited as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live on December 17, 2022 which was hosted by Austin Butler.

31) She went on a tour across Europe, North America and Oceania and it was called ‘The Special Tour’ for her album Special.

32) She dropped a single titled ‘Pink’ which was featured as an original song for the 2023 movie Barbie’s ‘Barbie The Album’.

33) Lizzo's popularity continued to grow and she began to tour with some of the biggest names in music including Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus.

Role model

Lizzo is known for her body-positive songs and her message of love for oneself as well as their own body frame. She has always been speaking out about the importance of accepting ourselves for who we are, regardless of our body shape or our body’s size. She has also been an open critic of diet culture and unrealistic beauty standards in today’s times. In an interview with the magazine Vice, she spoke about body image stating “You can wake up and change many things about your appearance, but the inevitability of waking up in your skin is what unifies us”.

She struggled with body issues early on as a child. She has a biological issue of being obese and has been body-shamed throughout her musical career. As soon as she began achieving mainstream success, she began advocating for body-positivity and self-love. By body positivity, she vouches for body inclusivity meaning including everyone of every build and to celebrate individuality. Her message of self-love has resonated with millions of people around the world, esp. the ladies. She has inspired people to love their bodies and to love themselves unconditionally. She is a role model for people of all sizes and shapes. Lizzo is a total inspiration to anyone who has ever felt insecure about their body type.

Lizzo is a talented musician, a powerful voice for body positivity and an inspiration to millions of her fans around the world. She is a staunch supporter of the LGBTQA+ community and their causes. On the flipside, she has a strong fanbase in the community and they call themselves ‘Lizzbians’. Although she has been under fire regarding her weight issue, she is a role model today. She is a strong promoter of body positivity, confidence and self-love. She credits social media and the internet for butterfly effect of accepting plus-size women in various industries. She is sure to continue making waves in the music industry for years and years to come.

Here are some quick facts about Lizzo's life and career.

1) She is a flutist and plays the flute in her live shows.

2) She is a vegan and has even spoken about the importance of animal rights.

3) She is a philanthropist who has donated money to various charities including the NAACP, Planned Parenthood and The Trevor Project.

4) She has been vocal about mental health and has often talked about her own struggles with anxiety and depression.

5) She is a fashion icon and has been featured in big magazines such as Elle and Vogue.

6) She is a social media rockstar who has amassed over 10 million followers on Instagram.

7) Lizzo has named her flute as ‘Sasha’.

8) She has a group of backup dancers called ‘Big Grrrls’ and all it’s members are plus-size performers.

9) The original music video of her track ‘Truth Hurts’ has gained 220+ million views on the platform YouTube.

10) She grew up as a Christian attending the ‘Church Of God In Christ’, which is a large Pentecostal denomination in the United States.

Lizzo performing with her backup dancers group 'Big Grrrls'

Lizzo's impact on the music industry and on society as a whole is undeniable. She is a role model for people of all sizes and shapes. She is an inspiration to anyone who has ever felt insecure about themselves or their life. She is sure to continue to make waves in the music for years to come.

Can you name Lizzo's latest album or song? Which is your favourite music video of Lizzo? Can you embrace your body type like she does? What is your biggest takeaway from Lizzo's messages of body positivity? How important is it for you to respect someone's body type? Do draw inspiration from Lizzo in any way? What would be your message for Lizzo if you ever were to meet her in person? Do share your views below.

Disclaimer : All the pictures in this post is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.