The song “It’s About Damn Time” has become another worldwide hit for Lizzo and the pop phenomenon reveals the motivation behind it, her new album and plans to tour Australia.
“You’re going to learn about what I look like naked.”
Superstar American singer and rapper Lizzo loves to shock and over share and we love her for it.
Born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, the 34-year-old has just released her much-hyped fourth studio album and is deep in the world of promotion.
Refreshingly open with nothing off limits, Lizzo sounds genuinely excited as she beams through larger than life on Zoom from her US home.
“I feel like I’m so emotionally raw and vulnerable on this album,” Lizzo tells Insider. “Like, even in the more fun songs, there are certain lines that I deliver that make me go, ‘Oh my gosh’, that make me shy even when I listen back to them.”
She continued: “I decided to go there because I needed it. I feel like I’ve been in survival mode for a long time and I really wanted my music to be able to help me heal and reflect and almost become like an armour that I can use to get through this wild world that we’re in. It is beautifully crafted, lots of guitar, it is very funky, it is very disco feel-good. It has got everything you want, everything you need.”
Survival mode?
“Survival mode is doing what you have got to do to get through. I think that I had no choice but to go into survival mode, especially in 2020 when we all had to lock down for the global pandemic. It has just been one thing after the other and I think not being numb to things and trying to have the tools to get through is like really important so you don’t get lost in the sauce.”
As you’d expect, Lizzo in person is as fun, cheeky and playful as she appears in her fabulous video clips and television appearances.
She is also deeply passionate about her new music. The album, Special, was released on Thursday and has already spawned the global hit About Damn Time. Lizzo is listed with songwriter credits on all of the tracks, with the likes of Lauryn Hill, Rick Rubin, Max Martin among those she penned songs with.
Coldplay – Chris Martin, Johnny Buckland, William champion and Guy Berryman – worked with Lizzo on a track named after the band.
“Special can be super simple but it means so many things to so many people and is so useful in different ways and I think that is the beauty of it,” she said. “The titular track is very special to me, I wrote it in a very vulnerable time for me when I was going through a lot with the media and how they perceive me and receive me as an artist. And I felt like, ‘Oh, this is so important’. This is like a thesis. Like, if my album were college, then Special would be the thesis paper in my final so I thought it was extremely fitting to call it that.” There is an fascinating dichotomy of strength and fragility to Lizzo, which some would say is part of her global appeal, with huge success on her first three albums, Lizzobangers (2013), Big Grrrl Small World (2015) and Cuz I Love You (2019).
She at times seems ridiculously confident while also self-deprecating in a way.
“It does take a level of, ‘oh my God, no she didn’t’ for me to say some things that I say,” she explained. “But I think that I naturally have a very candid disposition, like I’m a very TMI (too much information) kind of girl and it’s not hard for me to divulge and to share some of the uglier parts of living and the fact that I can do it so well through song and in a way that is so succinct and people can connect to it almost instantly is a gift.
And if I have a gift, I have to share it. So yeah, I think the fact that I can reflect the times and sing about them and hopefully that can help somebody get through it is very important to me.”
Reflecting, she added: “I don’t know if it is strength all the time. I think it’s more like a feeling, like an instinct, like I have to do this. Sometimes I don’t feel very strong when I am doing it.”
Lizzo has already announced a North American Special Tour that kicks off in Florida on September 23. And she is hopeful she will be able to bring the show to Australia.
She played a run of shows here in January 2020, before the global pandemic took hold.
“I want to come to Australia again,” she said. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, even though I know you guys were going through a lot as a country (with bushfires). I really felt like I connected with Australia and had some really beautiful moments. So of course I want to come back like, why wouldn’t I? I love to tour, I love to travel and I love Australia.”
Performing on stage, she said, is “what I am here to do baby”.
“I feel very at home, it’s a very natural feeling up there where I’m like, ‘Oh, of course’. Mind you, leading up to it, I am like, ‘do I still got it, am I going to be able to do this or that?’. And then once I get on the stage, it’s like it is home. To receive the love from the crowd, I think has been one of the most special experiences of my life.”
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