Voodoo News: Lizzo Will Be As Big As She Wants To Be
Lizzo proves her headliner quality through her confidence, musical range, and high energy stage presence.
It is disrespectful to describe Lizzo as “only” anything. Lizzo will perform on Saturday at Voodoo’s Altar Stage at 3:30 p.m., and she has made a name and space for herself by proving that she is more than what’s expected of her. Many people who come to a Lizzo show come for the body-positive, self-love proponent singer and rapper whose songs helped get them through their last break-up. She says that she’s more than this and proves her immense musical range in her live performances.
Lizzo builds her image on being an unapologetically sultry, black woman of size, and crowds will gather for this reason alone. It is refreshing how deeply she loves herself and how she makes us love ourselves, and people are drawn to this—either for the novelty or the energy. But once they're in the door, her musical talent and range keeps audiences on their toes, adding layers to the image we all have of her.
She flaunts her range as a musician by rapping, singing, dancing, and even playing the flute during shows. Her track record as an artist shows she’s able to create different types of bangers including “Boys,” a light, fun track about loving all different types of boys. She’s a pop star on it, while “Ain’t I” from her sophomore album, Big Grrrl Small World, presents a harder side of Lizzo with a much more aggressive flow, rooted thematically in her size.
“If you are yourself long enough, the world will accept you,” she told Self’s Jessica Cruel. “That’s the lesson I learned with my bigness.”
Her size is a part of the image she proudly constructs, and she is vocal about undoing harmful misconceptions surrounding women of size. She recently posted a video to Twitter of her playing the flute, stopping or a dance break, then easily returning to the flute, completely unwinded.
HAVE U EVER SEEN A BITCH PLAY FLUTE THEN HIT THE SHOOT? pic.twitter.com/aVy3E6kIVF
— |L I Z Z O| (@lizzo) October 20, 2018
Lizzo has opened for Sleater-Kinney, Har Mar Superstar, Florence and the Machine, has collaborated with Big Freedia, and has founded multiple rap groups that were all moderately successful in their prime. As a solo act, she has positioned herself as everyone’s supportive best friend, and the energy she gets from that persona is what got her noticed. She clearly has bigger ambitions than afternoon slots at summer rock festivals though, and while history says they’re unlikely to be fulfilled, Lizzo has already gotten farther than other women her size in the music industry. She has the range and star quality to be a headliner. Watch her perform and it’s hard to believe it won’t happen.
