There is a lot in which to contend when considering all-things Lizzo, an artist who seems to be a magnet for America’s bad to worse feelings about itself.
Ever since the composer, vocalist and flutist became a next-big-thing with 2019’s R&B barnstorming Cuz I Love You from 2019 – this, after years in the biz – then followed up its fame with an Amazon Studios production deal that included her unscripted reality competition series, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls (a huge winner at this year’s Emmy Awards), she has become a target.
For her weight, and a level of body shaming nearly unparalleled on social media.
For the revealing manner in which she dresses at what is perceived as an unhealthy, and therefore supposedly unattractive weight (starting at a Lakers game, where she twerked on camera to her song “Juice” while revealing a thong beneath), and encouraging others to be feel and be free.
For her perceived fluid sexuality (she now “leans heterosexual,” but has aligned herself with the LGBTQ+ rainbow and calls her fans, “Lizzbians”.
For her self-love and platitudinal manner – axioms touching on body positivity and you-can-do-anything attitude, her own universe’s maxims and mantras as to how to be the best of who you are, no matter who you are.
Major personalities in hip hop such as 50 Cent have given Lizzo grief for her looks and image, surely causing her mental health additional stress. 50 Cent is kind-of-a-dick to everybody though on social media, so who cares. Republicans too need to tamp it down when being bugged out by Lizzo. Yes, when she stopped in Washington D.C. for her “The Special Tour,” Lizzo had the opportunity to make history by performing with a 200-year-old crystal flute owned by Founding Father and U.S. president James Madison. Madison got the flute in 1813 and since his passing, it has been maintained by the Library of Congress. OK, Lizzo played the flute, and she twerked when she did so. That’s what Lizzo does. She twerks a lot. She says the word, ‘bitch’ a lot, too. As in: “Bitch, I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s,” from what she told D.C. concertgoers later that night. “We just made history tonight!”
Yup. GOP members took to social media after the flute that twerked incident went viral, accusing her of “desecrating American history just for the sake of it,” like right-wing pundit Matt Walsh alleged on Twitter. So did, Daily Wire editor Ben Shapiro, right-wing commentator Greg Price, Trump appointee Darren Beattie, Nick Adams and Jenna Ellis.
Relax, GOP. Lizzo played tooted three notes on a flute and danced. If it had been a goofball comic or a hammy actor, they might have pretended to drop the flute, or lose the flute or something twice as corny. It’s fine.
Now, on a personal tip regarding Lizzo, I’m uncertain as to how healthy it is for a woman or man so active – especially on stage where she bounces around with her self-titled “Big Girls” dance crew and wails her heart out – to carry additional weight of any sort and move around like crazy. Hell, I’m ten pounds heavier than I have ever been due to fucking up my finger and lacking in exercise, and I’m not sure I’d throw myself around a stage for 2 hours and stress out my heart. As for her wealth of platitudes, maybe I have once believed them to be overkill, especially in a setting such as her new album, Special, where broad mantra replaces nuance and intimacy, for something resembling a TED Talk or a life coach session. Perhaps slogans on t shirts would work better. Just saying.
For all this, however – her work, her weight, the positive affirmations – Lizzo has a developed a devoted cult of fans beyond her usual, a Feel Good Inc. capable of selling out stops on her first arena tour “Special” and dates such as her FLA Live Arena in Sunrise opening night, her night at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center where I saw her, and shows such as October 2’ New York, NY Madison Square Garden concert.
Mothers and daughters, packs of girls in a varying degree of dress and undress, sequins, feathers and folderol, boys carrying rainbow flags, people of all color and sexuality: they all flock to Lizzo as if heading happily to the healing waters of Lourdes. The platitudes, when considering the various shades and sensations of this sold-out crowd, didn’t hinder Lizzo’s message with its sentiment or broadness. It actually worked to unity the diverse crowd – one nation under a groove. Inclusivity big time.
Entering the stage to the self-empowered people-doing-me-wrong-song of “The Sign,” with the inclusion of her Big Girls dance crew with her next song, “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready), Lizzo’s brand of high impact R&B was ferocious, forged a self-love festival of love, and light that was amazing to see, and won a thundering brand of applause I’ve rarely (if ever) witnessed. To paraphrase the old Elvis Presley album, 50,000,000 Lizzo fans not only can’t be wrong, they prove a point that Lizzo makes more prominent, later, toward the end of her set: that social media doesn’t mean a thing.
Looking around the sold-out Wells Fargo Center in awe (even welling up with tears earlier during the show), Lizzo said, “This is living proof that the internet doesn’t mean shit. I know I sound like a broken record, but I love you, you are beautiful and you can do anything.”
Yes, she repeated that rhetoric several times throughout the show’s just under 120 minute length. Yes, she asked her audience to repeat that same maxim back to her so to bathe in her own loving embrace – why not? Self love is capital. Yes, Lizzo wore more than a few, Day-Glo scantily cladding outfits as did her crowd, and twerked as did her crowd. When she simmered her vocal sound to a whisper beyond her immense soulful bellow on “Naked” and “Break Up Twice” – with nothing but a brown satin body suit with projections of stars and roses on her body in the darkness – Lizzo stood proud with the words “My Body My Choice” emblazoned across her frame.
The crowd may have been mostly under 21s, and yet they roared with approval of the idea of fighting for those same bodily rights, even if they didn’t quite get the extended consideration of a future without Roe V. Wade. If they had, they would have been really been screaming, and not with glee.
Backed by a rocking all-female band (who weren’t afraid to throw out some cool prog rock Yes interpolations) and background vocalists, everything from the bold, brassy “Cuz I Love You” to the funky, flower metaphorical “Water Me” to the rush of the aptly-titled “About Damn Time,” everything Lizzo was self-empowered as hell, and everything empowered was Lizzo as hell – as wrapped up in the sentimental dictate of loving her while loving yourself. It’s about the same thing, and it’s all about damn time.
