Turning 20 is not the best age in life for everyone. In 2010, Lizzo will quickly understand this following the premature death of her father, which breaks the harmony of a previously peaceful existence. The young woman sinks into depression, abandons her studies, squats on sofas 24 hours a day when she doesn’t go so far as to sleep in her car. “From 19 to 21, they were the worst years of my life, I didn’t eat or very badly, I hated myself, I was poor”sums up the singer on a daily basis Release in May 2019. To top it all off, her then-boyfriend told her to get slim! It’s too much for this post-teen who has always suffered from significant body shaming since childhood.
“From 19 to 21, those were the worst years of my life”
Lizzo decides to drop everything, leaving Texas for Minnesota to fulfill her dream: to become a professional musician. Melissa “Lizzo” Viviane Jefferson is not from Texas, however. She was born in Detroit (Michigan), the city of the mythical Motown label which gave birth to artists like Marvin Gaye or Diana Ross. Her father, Michael, is a business executive, her mother, Shari, a stay-at-home mother. She has a brother, Mikey, and a sister, Vanessa. When she was 10, her family decided to move to Houston, Texas. Lizzo grows up, torn between a demanding training as a classical flautist – she adores Francis Poulenc and Claude Debussy – and the call of a hip-hop whose sounds she appreciates, whether those of Missy Elliott or Lauryn Hill. “It was the flute that chose me! I was in primary school and there was a great teacher, I was lucky… But I was very good too!”she explained to Release in 2019.
A hip-hop-oriented pop singer, Melissa is first and foremost a classical musician who excels on the transverse flute.
In the meantime, Lizzo joins the school brass band according to the wishes of parental authority, while setting up several rap groups with her friends. In March 2020, she remembered in the columns of Grace: “My parents supported me, but above all they wanted me to play in a symphony orchestra”. After high school, Lizzo joined a faculty of musicology and perfected her art several hours a day. Three years after the death of her father and the slump that followed, Lizzo regains control under the injunction of her mother. She then decided to devote herself to rap and pop and, for that, moved to Minneapolis (Minnesota). There, she founded several groups including a trio à la Destiny’s Child baptized The Chalice. Luck ends up smiling at him. Lizzo is spotted by Prince who heard her on a local radio. The singer offers him, as well as his colleague from The Chalice, to collaborate on his album Plectrum Electrum. Prince lets them improvise what they want and this collaboration allows Lizzo to come out of anonymity.
Lizzo Liberated Woman
She then released two independent records, Lizzobangers and Big Grrrl Small Worldsupported by a producer contacted on Twitter. Thanks to its flattering label “artist discovered by Prince”Lizzo went on tour, signed with Atlantic Records (like Aretha Franklin, formerly), then released, in 2016, an EP called Coconut Oil, with a certain indifference. The label is disappointed, Lizzo too, she thinks of dropping the case. But a miracle happens. A romantic comedy, Someone Greatwhich is a hit on netflix used Truth Hurts, one of his singles released two years earlier. The triumph is immediate, Lizzo finds it hard to believe: the title and its clip go viral on TikTok and rank at the top of the American charts… This is the first song by a black singer to achieve this feat since Rihanna in 2012! For Lizzo, all the lights are green, it only remains to confirm, and it will not fail. She appears naked as a verse on the cover of her next record, Cuz I Love You (“Because I love you”).
“I’m too good to be stressed”
But staring at us, she seems to say “because I love myself” ! We are in 2019 and this album, carried by the single Juice, will break all records. Sales related to the artistic qualities of Lizzo certainly, but not only. The 30-year-old suddenly embodies a new wind in the world of pop by becoming the champion of the “body positive” movement. A current of thought that points the finger at grossophobia and promotes acceptance and self-love. Lizzo is the right person in the right place at the right time. The public receives their message 5/5 and gives a triumph to this young woman who throws such a wind of freedom and positivity… all with a devastating humor, both in her words and during her stage performances! An example: his twerking lesson with a transverse flute at the Coachella festival in 2019, which quickly went viral on social networks! TikTok remains his favorite playground to promote his art. About Damn Time, the first extract from his latest album, is already cult there and has given rise to a plethora of choreographies in pajamas. It must be said that this devastating funky sound is also carried by a definitive punchline: “I’m too good to be stressed.” A Queen’s Speech.
Digital flirtation with Chris Evans
Celib, we do not know him or her spouse. In 2019, she opened up about heartbreak with someone nicknamed Gemini in the album Cuz I Love You. We won’t know any more. In the meantime, Lizzo plays mischievous by flirting (for the joke?) Chris Evans or Charlie Puth on TikTokdefinitely his favorite network since “less hateful than Twitter”she explained to the magazine RollingStonein 2019.
She throws her line
The artist very quickly felt entitled to create an inclusive lingerie brand, called Yitty. A line “sculpting, adapted and designed for all morphos”, explains the pub. Queen of body positivism and also queen of business…
His reality show on Amazon
2022 is truly the year of Lizzo. Between her album and her lingerie brand, the pop star launched her reality show last February, available on AmazonPrime. His title ? Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. The concept ? A tele-hook to recruit its dancers. The program is also in the running for the next Emmy Awards.
Gay friendly!
LGBT icon, Lizzo was the guest of the Dinah Shore Californian lesbian festival in 2017. Her gay fans, she nicknames them the “Lizzbians”. In an interview at varietylast February, she declared herself “hetero-flexible”. Sensible lesbian?
Discography
2013: LIZZOBANGERSIn Minneapolis, she collaborated with Prince on an album, then, on the strength of this exposure, she released, independently, a first LP.
2015: BIG GRRRL SMALL WORLD A second opus whose title already sets the tone. She begins a big tour in small rooms and begins to make herself known.
2019: CUZ I LOVE YOUThe album of consecration, with hits like Jerome or Juice, Lizzo imposes her style: she is the queen of body positivism! Eight Grammy Awards upon arrival. Full box.
2022: SPECIALReleased in July and already two big hits: Grrrls, a clever 2022 response to the Beastie Boys’ nag Girls, in 1986. And About Damn Time, the soundtrack as ideal and summery!
See also: A few weeks before the launch, a star crashes the production of “Dancing with the Stars”… and his partner, who leaks the real reason!
Sylvain Monier