PHOTOS WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, INSTAGRAM, ATLANTIC RECORDS
At the 2019 MTV VMAs, Lizzo shared the stage with a crew of gorgeous, curvaceous Black backing dancers, and an enormous, inflatable, bouncing booty. In the middle of her medley of self-love anthems, she took a moment to speak directly to the audience: “I’m tired of the bullshit and I don’t have to know your story to know that you’re tired of the bullshit, too. It’s so hard trying to love yourself in a world that doesn’t try to love you back. So I want to take this opportunity right now to just feel good as hell, because you deserve to feel good as hell. We deserve to feel good as hell!” The crowd roared in agreement. Queen Latifah was up on her feet, grinning from ear-to-ear. Afterwards, Rihanna DM’d Lizzo and told her, “You fucked the stage like it was your side bitch”.
In a word: iconic. But then, every Lizzo moment is iconic. She’s naked, glistening and glorious on the cover for her smash hit album, Cuz I Love You: iconic. She’s preaching radical self-love to her 5 million Instagram followers: iconic. She’s rocking Jay-Z’s Made In America Festival as Beyoncé watches, spellbound, from the side of the stage: iconic doesn’t even come close.