The Lizzo Show

Everything's coming up Lizzo, and it's about damn time | The Grammy- and Emmy-winning artist unplugs with the veteran VF music writer for a rip-roaring conversation about music, identity, and joy.

- By Lisa Robinson. Photographs by Campbell Addy

It had been a hectic week for Lizzo. She released her second major-label studio album, Special, with a five-song outdoor performance on the Today show summer concert series in over 85-degree July heat. There were back-to-back promotional appearances in New York City (where years ago, she tells me, she had her first anxiety attack, and adds that it’s always stressful when she goes to New York). Within days of the release, Special debuted at number two on the Billboard charts and the single “About Damn Time” went to number one. Now back home, somewhere in the hills of Los Angeles, she gestures to the pool and the trees and the grass outside the floor-to-ceiling glass walls and says, “I like nature.” She’s wearing a black strapless dress from her own Yitty shapewear line, long Chanel pearls, and Yitty platform slides, which she kicked off as we sat and talked. Her long acrylic nails were painted a pale pink, and her hair was dark and wavy. “It’s mine,” she said with her very distinctive, very ebullient laugh, “I bought it.”

In the nearly four hours that we talked in late July in her sunny living room, Lizzo was animated, serious, passionate, and hilariously funny. The singer-song-writer-dancer-flautistactor and reality competition show host had just moved into her new house that week, but her belongings weren’t there yet. The empty built-in shelves awaited books and numerous awards— including three Grammys, an NAACP award, a Soul Train award, and a BET award. The only visible personal touches amidst the custom wooden furniture were two bouquets of roses and an Hermès blanket on one of the sofas.

ANGEL EYES