Lizzo: Your way to superstardom

Lizzo
Your way to becoming a superstar

With the song “About Damn Time”, multi-talent Lizzo (34) not only delivers a summer hit of the year, but also the matching viral TikTok dance. Her eagerly awaited new album “Special” will be released on July 15th. The rapper and songwriter had her first global hit in 2019 with the song “Truth Hurts”. What hardly anyone knows: the song was already two years old at the time and the 34-year-old was no longer a newcomer…

Melissa Viviane Jefferson, as the singer was born, started with music at an early age. Her trademark and faithful companion to this day: her flute, which she later named “Sasha Flute”. The youngest of three siblings received lessons on the classical instrument from the age of ten. It was during high school that she found love for rap. For the time being, however, she remained true to classical music and studied it at the University of Houston from 2007.

After her father died, she lived in her car

A short time later, she suffered a severe stroke of fate. Looking back, she says that 2009 was the hardest year of her life. Her father died two years after she began her studies. He was her biggest fan and supporter. She broke off her studies, first lived with friends and finally in her car. In an interview with the US broadcaster CBS News she recalled in 2020, “It was just because I was depressed. I didn’t have a goal, I felt like I wasn’t destined to be a musician or anything.” Since she no longer wanted to be a burden to friends, the only place she could retreat to was her car, a Subaru. “This was my home for a while. I spent Thanksgiving in this car and I remember crying myself to sleep.”

At the time, Lizzo had no idea that ten years later she would celebrate her international breakthrough. Instead, the years that followed were one of hard work. In 2011 she moved from Texas to Minneapolis. Together with two other musicians she founded the R&B rap formation The Chalicewho recorded her first album in 2012.

A year later, Lizzo released her debut solo album “Lizzobangers”. Although this was praised by critics, it was not a great success. The American continued to work on the next album seamlessly after the release. Meanwhile, Prince (1958-2016) became aware of Lizzo and her fellow band members from The Chalice and recorded a song with them for the album “Plectrumelectrum” in September 2014. An experience that was “almost like a fairy tale” for Lizzo, as she later described it in a YouTube interview betrayed.

Lizzo wrote hits – but they were not well received

In 2015, after the release of her second album Big Grrrl Small World, she signed to Atlantic Records. From then on she put all her energy and creativity into the EP “Coconut Oil”, which should finally bring her the success she had been working towards in the previous years. The 2016 lead single “Good As Hell” had everything it needed to be a hit – and yet fell through the musical radar. A year later, Lizzo tried again with the closing anthem “Truth Hurts”. In an interview with “Rolling Stone” she revealed that everything had felt right now. “I’m doing this rap singing thing and the beat was strong. I was proud of it.” The song flopped again.

When Lizzo began to doubt whether she was going in the right direction with the music, the tide turned. Concert excerpts from the rapper went viral in 2018 – the reason: her flute solos, which she regularly performed at live performances while twerking at the same time. With the clips that spread quickly, Lizzo became a US star. The singer then played sold-out concerts, was a guest on US talk shows and was certain: It couldn’t get any better.

But she had reckoned without the Netflix film “Someone Great”, which should finally make her an international phenomenon in 2019. In the comedy, “Jane The Virgin” star Gina Rodriguez (37) has her heart broken. She finds comfort in a legendary scene in alcohol and the song “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo. The song, which was already two years old at the time, became a worldwide hit overnight. The recently released third album “Cuz I Love You” reached gold status a few weeks later and received two Grammy nominations. Ten years after the hardest year of her life, Lizzo was celebrated as a “star overnight”. Hardly anyone realized how much work, tears and pain the now 34-year-old had to put behind the supposedly sudden success.

Lizzo worked on “Special” for five years

Three years have passed since Lizzo’s big break. During that time she won three Grammys, set a world record with the success of “Truth Hurts” and went on two sold-out tours. She added two global hits with “Rumours” with rapper Cardi B (29) and “About Damn Time” and also released her own Amazon Prime video series, which was recently nominated for seven Emmys. She has her own shapewear collection, starred alongside Jennifer Lopez (52) in the 2019 film “Hustlers” and will have her own documentary on the US streaming service HBO this fall. The 34-year-old is undeniably at the top of her career so far.

On July 15, she will be releasing a fourth album that music fans have been eagerly awaiting: “Special”. In an interview with the Industry magazine “Variety” The singer revealed in advance: “I’ve been working on this album since the summer of 2018. […] It’s the hardest musically, most daring and most demanding work I’ve done so far.” The previously released songs “About Damn Time” and “Grrrls” already promise that fans can again look forward to pop anthems about girl power, self-love and mental health.

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