The queen of self-love puts on a joyous show
Lizzo’s first major UK performance, at Glastonbury’s Other Stage in June, had men and women of all ages clutching each other under the baking sun. Some were crying, others laughing, as the 31-year-old Detroit-born rapper, RNB singer and classically trained flautist, majestic in a white wedding veil, delivered flippant and resonant aphorisms about self-love and body positivity from her podium, having just comically married herself on stage in homage to her 2017 breakout hit, Truth Hurts.
The weird and wonderful moment became glorified via countless memes, and Lizzo – who had just released her debut album, Cuz I Love You – saw her cult, Us-centric following turn into worldwide mass adoration.
Everyone from Macaulay Culkin to Lady Gaga declared themselves disciples of Lizzo’s “church”, which preaches an invigorating mindset of audacious self-belief and zerotolerance for self-pity. In fact, over the past six months, Lizzo has become so much more than a “mere” singer that when she arrived on stage at Brixton Academy on Wednesday night for the first of two London shows, the audience was momentarily stunned by the magnificent, bolshie vocals bellowing invisibly from beneath a giant puff of pink smoke.
Once they’d recovered, fans chanted Lizzo’s name with such euphoria that the star sat down on the stage and cried. It has, after all, been a whirlwind trip to the top. Minutes later however, Lizzo was back on her feet, ceremoniously removing her sparkling dress to reveal a tight gold bodysuit, before lovingly caressing her own curves. “This is high tea, honey,” she said flirtatiously in a British accent, as her four female backing dancers assembled around her to begin an hour of perfectly choreographed twerking. Lizzo whizzed through her album’s hits (from sexloving anthem Boys to break up balm
Good as Hell), pausing momentarily to down tequila and once again don the wedding veil. The sheer cheek and fun of it all had the venue in a joyous state of delirium – I’ve never seen so many people madly grinning under one roof.
Ever the savvy entertainer, Lizzo kept her best trick until the encore: a furiously energetic and proficient solo of her song Juice on her flute, nicknamed Sasha after Beyoncé’s fearsome alter ego (and so loved that it even has its own Instagram fan account, Sashabeflutin).
It was an apt finale for a musician who truly can do it all, prompting the biggest screams of the evening and leaving no room for doubt: Lizzo’s bombastic confidence is utterly deserved.