Every now and then we come across an underrated artist who seems to have come out of nowhere.
This year it is Lizzo. She has been making music for a while, but it wasn't until recently that she started to be noticed in the industry. This year, she's made her first appearances performing at awards shows and even a huge performance at Coachella, which I can say is amazing! Coachella is what got her noticed by most.
She first put out music in 2016 with her first single "Good as Hell," then shortly after she came out with an EP that made it to one of the US Top 100 charts which is beyond impressive to just be starting out.
If you look at any of her performances she has done in the past she has had backup dancers who are plus size and they all embrace who they are through their dancing and art for music. Lizzo herself has made the disadvantages that people have assumed of her, like her race, height, weight, etc. and used it as fuel for her music and art.
In an interview, she stated the following, "I don't really care about having the number-one album; I care about the influence. … I'd rather have 100K big girls on the field at the Super Bowl dancing, showing the world all we can do."
When you listen to her album, she talks about female body positivity, which is heavily needed today in our society. A lot of females, myself included have felt the need to fit a specific mold when it comes to the way I should look. When society tells me at the age of 10 that I am not "skinny" at my age is not a good feeling. As a child who is still developing, they can feel lost as to what they should look like at such a young age. As I grew older, and social media became a bigger presence in the day to day life, I noticed how females were oppressed to "look a certain way." Then began a rise in eating disorders and girls began to feel like they weren't feeling accepted due to the way they looked.
Politics aside, any song you listen to of hers is a bop. I first found her when a friend of mine sent me her song and then again when I watched "Someone Great" on Netflix. The song was "Truth Hurts," which talks about a female not needing to rely on a male to get through life. Going into discussing how women lift up their partner and not bring them down. Typically after a bad breakup where the girl isn't at fault, they still feel like they are. She talks about how she's better off without a man if he isn't gonna appreciate her.
With Lizzo's work, she is proving to young girls that it is OK to look different and to be comfortable in your own skin. No girl should have to go through the stigma of having the need to fit someone else's body standards and Lizzo stands for that.
