Lizzo’s SXSW Keynote: Says New Album Is Done, Rips Texas Politics

“That is so foolish, I’m so sorry, y’all. That is supposed be a keynote speech!” Lizzo exclaimed midway by her freewheeling keynote deal with on Sunday at South By Southwest. Sundays at SXSW are at all times just a little sleepy, a state of affairs not helped by this specific one arriving the day after clocks jumped ahead an hour for Daylight Financial savings Time. So the vibe across the Austin Conference Heart was understandably just a little subdued — at the very least till Lizzo took the stage bedecked in a shiny, outrageously checkered outfit, combating again glad tears of disbelief however keen to speak with radio host Angela Yee about Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Large Grrrls, her upcoming unscripted streaming sequence.

Debuting March 25 on Amazon Prime Video, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Large Grrrls follows the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-flutist on a quest to search out onstage dancers who appear to be herself. It’s an inherently body-positive program, a present that’s as a lot about self-love and acceptance as it’s about hiring a crew of performers.

Lizzo’s gospel of self-love fueled a lot of her SXSW keynote speech, culminating in a second the place she led the viewers by a self-belief mantra of “I really like you. You’re lovely. You are able to do something,” encouraging strangers to take off their SXSW-mandated masks and switch and say these phrases of positivity to 1 one other. It was the emotional peak of a chat that was directly frank, humorous, and revealing.

Right here’s our 5 takeaways:

A brand new album is on the best way.

Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Large Grrrls kicks off what guarantees to be a bustling 2022 for the rapper. “The bitch been busy,” Lizzo mentioned of herself. The massive information? There’s new music on the horizon. “I can lastly inform all people, actually I’m flying residence immediately to grasp my album. It’s completed so it’s coming very very quickly…and it’s good. I labored actual arduous on it, so it higher be good.”

Whereas there’s no phrase of an official launch date, Lizzo confirmed her Prime Video sequence will tease a few of her the fabric. “There’s gonna be previews of latest music on the present earlier than the album comes out, so if you would like some new music, watch Watch Out for the Large Grrrls on Prime Video March 25. I’m not gonna inform you which episodes, so that you’ll must binge all of ’em.” Lizzo deflected particular questions in regards to the sound of the brand new music, however Yee famous that SZA and Missy Elliott seem on the present, which might be a touch of what’s to come back on the album.

After the file is out, Lizzo is hitting the street. “There’s undoubtedly a tour however we now have quite a lot of surprises,” she mentioned. “That is just the start, that is the tip of the titty, honey.”

Lizzo’s want to see extra individuals who appear to be her onstage birthed the sequence.

“I wanted huge women greater than I wanted a tv present,” Lizzo mentioned by the use of explaining the origin of her sequence. From the outset of her performing profession, she wished to encompass herself with dancers who shared her similar stature. She sat by infinite open casting calls to no avail: “I didn’t see me mirrored within the dancers after which someday I mentioned, ‘You recognize what motherfucker, if I gotta get a TV present to carry some consciousness for this, then pull up my sleeves and let’s go.’”

Watch Out for the Large Grrrls bucks reality-show conventions.

Twenty years after “I’m not right here to make buddies” turned a actuality TV present cliché, Lizzo makes an attempt to show that notion upon its head: On Watch Out for the Large Grrrls, the entire thought is to foster cooperation and camaraderie, and construct a crew.

“It was additionally vital that I modified the narrative of what a actuality competitors tv present appears to be like like,” Lizzo mentioned. “We don’t at all times must be merciless, we could be sort. We don’t must pit folks towards one another.” This sensibility stems from the impetus for the present, and the way it’s been so tough to search out dancers. “I really feel prefer it’s arduous sufficient within the dance world already for ladies who appear to be me, so why would I create that atmosphere in my area? If I had the ability to alter that, why not change that?”

Watch Out for the Large Grrrls was directed by Nneka Onuorah, and Lizzo mentioned it was “so vital to have a Black lady on the helm of the digicam on this complete sequence. Her imaginative and prescient.” A part of that imaginative and prescient was to maneuver away from reality-show conventions. “We wished to guarantee that we created an atmosphere, particularly on digicam, that might be conducive to having Black folks and never have a stereotype,” Lizzo mentioned. “We will see them for who they are surely and never a caricature, like what occurs a lot on tv.”

Lizzo says the haters received to her after releasing “Rumors.”

The performer admitted she was harm by criticism across the time she launched “Rumors,” her first new single since 2019’s breakthrough Cuz I Love You. “When ‘Rumors’ dropped final yr, I noticed some actually merciless issues on-line. Nothing in regards to the music — ‘Rumors’ did very properly, child — but it surely was just a few issues about my character that actually deeply harm me and it was coincidentally the day that I needed to movie,” she mentioned.

As Lizzo ready to introduce her dancers to her new music, she wound up crying on digicam. “I used to be speaking in regards to the fatphobia and racism towards individuals who appear to be me, and particularly me. After which I needed to clear up my face and go in and play ‘Rumors’ to the women, and this was not deliberate in any respect. I received extraordinarily emotional after I walked into the room…however I get to share this second and put these girls on a pedestal and on a platform, and we’re finally going to point out the world that you just can’t deal with folks like that. You can not deal with individuals who appear to be me like this. Shut the fuck up and simply watch the present, bitch.”

The onetime Houstonian isn’t proud of the state of Texas politics.

Given Lizzo’s roots in Houston, Yee requested the rapper to weigh in on a sequence of political controversies within the state — Lizzo didn’t mince phrases. When it got here to Texas governor Greg Abbott’s order to deal with gender-affirmative childcare as youngster abuse, she mentioned, “I’m proud to rep Houston however I’m not proud to rep Texan politics proper now. There are very regressive legal guidelines being handed. They’re taking away the correct for younger kids to have an opportunity to reside authentically as themselves. It’s a violation of human rights. Trans rights are human rights.”

She additionally spoke out on Texas’s restrictive abortion regulation. “We received a lotta ugly infants y’all have to be dealing with as an alternative of y’all being in folks’s properties and telling them what to do with their our bodies and being all up of their uteruses,” Lizzo mentioned. “The abortion ban is atrocious as properly. Thoughts what you are promoting. Keep out of my physique.”