Lizzo opened up about a slew of topics in her new Vanity Fair cover story. The singer, who routinely finds herself at the center of controversy, discussed the success of her latest album Special in addition to her personal and political beliefs.
Following Roe v. Wade being overturned, Lizzo gave $500,000 to Planned Parenthood and the National Network of Abortion Funds. The star also said she had Live Nation, her tour promoter, match that with an additional $500,000. She stated:
“I know plenty of people who would have died if they hadn’t had that procedure. It shouldn’t matter if I had a personal experience or knew somebody; it shouldn’t matter what my opinion is. Opinions is what got us in this shit in the first place—what people think people should be doing with their bodies. These days, we don’t create laws that support people having health care, never mind abortions. How about letting people have access and resources and mind their fucking business?”
She also discussed the significance of playing James Madison’s flute at a concert in Washington D.C. last month:
“When people look back at the crystal flute, they’re going to see me playing it. They’re going to see that it was owned by James Madison, but they’re going to see how far we’ve had to come for someone like me to be playing it in the nation’s capital, and I think that that’s a cool thing. I don’t want to leave history in the hands of people who uphold oppression and racism. My job as someone who has a platform is to reshape history.”
Lizzo also talked about body positivity and how it’s a topic of conversation for her no matter what.
“People have been calling me fat my entire life... And if one person says it, then another person says it, it multiplies like a fucking virus. If enough people on the internet start echoing sentiments about you, it becomes part of your public persona and it’s out of your control... Is my music and my weight so intrinsically connected that if I were to lose weight, I’d lose fans or lose validity? I don’t care!”
Lastly, she tackled the notion that she “makes music for white people”—one of the biggest critiques her music has had to date:
“When Black people see a lot of white people in the audience, they think, Well this isn’t for me, this is for them. The thing is, when a Black artist reaches a certain level of popularity, it’s going to be a predominantly white crowd...This has happened to so many Black artists: Diana Ross, Whitney, Beyoncé.… Rap artists now, those audiences are overwhelmingly white. I am not making music for white people. I am a Black woman, I am making music from my Black experience, for me to heal myself [from] the experience we call life.”
We’re glad to see Lizzo basking in her truth.