While Lizzo has been an active musician for a decade, it wasn’t until 2019 before she took the world by storm. Since her mainstream breakthrough, Lizzo’s songs waste no time becoming certified hits! Her third studio album, Cuz I Love You, won a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album and was also nominated for Album of the Year. Lizzo is now a household name, also known for her energetic live performances, as well as her inspiring lyrics and flute-playing abilities.
Lizzo’s songs cover a plethora of genres but lie within the scope of Hip Hop and R&B. Her lyrics are usually uplifting in nature, as she is very outspoken on topics surrounding self-love and self-esteem. After her commercial breakthrough in 2019, Lizzo has become a megastar, and these hits prove her continuous success.
“Tempo” became a club banger from the moment it was released. The R&B and trap-infused single is about Lizzo rapping about needing a faster-paced beat worth dancing to. “Tempo” also featured a sleek, cheeky rap verse from Missy Elliot. Now a body-positive anthem, “Tempo” is played whenever there’s some twerking going on. However, perhaps the most interesting part of the track is Lizzo’s classical flute playing, which she uses to close out the song.
“Cuz I Love You” might have failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100, but the opener to her breakthrough album of the same name is now one of Lizzo’s most revered songs. The single showed Lizzo’s strengths as both a vocalist and a rapper. “Cuz I Love You” is a big and bold, yet soulful number packed with tons of emotion. Lizzo famously performed the song at the 2020 Grammy Awards, where she was also the most nominated artist of the night.
Lizzo is one of few artists who has multiple sleeper hits. “Good as Hell” was initially released as a part of her first EP, Coconut Oil, in 2016. The motivational track, a feminist anthem, gained heavy attention in 2019. “Good as Hell” encourages women to fall in love with themselves and know their worth. After Lizzo performed the song at the 2019 MTV VMAs, it steadily rose on multiple charts.
“Good as Hell” eventually reached the third spot on the Billboard Hot 100 eight months after its 2019 re-release. Two music videos were shared, with the second blowing up on social media. That video featured Lizzo performing and having fun with the marching band at Southern University for homecoming week. A “Good as Hell” remix featuring Ariana Grande also became a hit, especially in Europe.
“Juice” is widely heralded as the best track off Lizzo’s third album, Cuz I Love You. The song, like many of her others, is all about self-love. “Juice” features fun and carefree one-liners like, “I’m like chardonnay, get better over time,” and “No, I’m not a snack at all. Look, baby, I’m the whole damn meal.” The song features many disco elements reminiscent of the 80s, and Lizzo paid homage to the sound with the music video. “Juice” also borrows elements from funk-pop, Hip Hop, and R&B.
Starting this song with the lyrics “It’s bad b*tch o’clock, yeah it’s thick thirty” marked the first of many witty lines on “About Damn Time.” The lead single off Special, “About Damn Time” became a global hit, eventually hitting the peak spot of the Billboard Hot 100. The song also went viral on TikTok and spurred numerous dance, rap, and singing challenges. However, the track’s major feat is snagging the Record of the Year Award at the 2023 Grammys.
This historic accomplishment made Lizzo the first rapper to win in that category and the first Black woman to take home the award since Whitney Houston in 1994. Lizzo wrote the song to have another uplifting anthem similar to “Good as Hell.” She wanted to create a song that reminded her fans to celebrate their survival in the wake of a post-pandemic world.
Many things contributed to the widespread success of Lizzo’s hit song, “Truth Hurts.” Although originally released in 2017, it was re-released two years later after it went viral on TikTok. “Truth Hurts” would eventually rise to the top of the charts, spending seven weeks as the No. 1 song in the country. Regarded as her breakthrough single, the song is a story about Lizzo falling in love with herself after a breakup.
Lizzo famously married herself in the popular music video, which was viewed over 300 million times. She also shared that she considered quitting music after “Truth Hurts,” her “best song ever,” failed to make waves back in 2017. Thankfully, she stuck through the rut, and her career has significantly blossomed since then.
NEWS
David Lee Roth made an unexpected appearance at the Stagecoach Festival on Saturday evening, stepping onto the stage with Teddy Swims to perform “Jump,” the iconic 1984 hit by Van Halen.
During his Stagecoach set, Swims welcomed Roth after running through his recent single “Mr. Know It All” along with “Some Things I’ll Never Know,” both taken from his debut studio album I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1), which arrived in September 2023.
This moment marked the third straight festival where the two have shared the stage. Swims previously invited Roth out during recent sets at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where he introduced him as “David Lee Roth from the best band of all time, Van Halen,” before they kicked into “Jump” together.
The latest performance unfolded during a chaotic night at Stagecoach, as strong winds earlier in the evening led to a temporary evacuation of the grounds and forced several changes to the schedule, including removing artists such as Journey and Riley Green from the lineup.
The evacuation came after powerful gusts swept through the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, the site of the festival. An “emergency evacuation” notice appeared on screens across the venue, urging attendees to “move quickly and calmly to the nearest exit,” while alerts sent through the festival’s official app instructed people to clear the area.
The interruption impacted several stages, with the Mane Stage sitting between sets when the evacuation alert was issued. Wind conditions had been intensifying throughout the day, with stronger gusts arriving in the evening as part of a regional wind advisory.
Even with the disruption, Swims’ set ultimately continued, and Roth’s surprise appearance stood out as one of the biggest highlights of the night as fans returned once the festival resumed.
Stagecoach, one of the largest country music festivals in the United States, takes place every year at the same location as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and regularly draws tens of thousands of fans.
