[Crimson Dynamo]

5 star review

On Wednesday, London was brought to a halt by yet another transport strike.
But even the tiresome alternatives to the Tube – buses that mysteriously
stop halfway from their destination, exorbitant taxi journeys, shuttle boats
across the Thames – couldn’t deter tens of thousands of people from
descending on the O2 to watch American superstar Lizzo shake her stuff.

The infectiously exuberant RnB singer has earned plaudit after plaudit since
erupting onto the scene with debut album Lizzobangers in 2013: she now has
four Grammys and three UK top 10 singles to her name, along with near
constant Billboard dominance in the US. With vocals to rival Aretha
Franklin’s, interspersed with raps straight out of The Miseducation of Lauryn
Hill, Lizzo is a magnetic performer – as soon as she emerged from the
depths of the sold-out arena, clad in a neon green latex catsuit, every eye
was fixated, a sea of bodies in the audience dancing and grooving to each
and every note.

Much of Lizzo’s music centres on self-love and acceptance (as in hits Good as
Hell and Rumors) and her refusal to conform to the music industry’s
archetype of a female pop star: skinny, and often, white. During Naked, the
message “My body, my choice” was projected onto her scantily clad form,
while her latest album’s titular track, Special, asked: “How could you throw f-
--ing stones if you ain’t been through her pain? / That’s why we feel so
alone, that’s why we feel so much shame”.

The break-up anthem Truth Hurts was met with rapturous cheers from the
crowd – which was, somewhat surprisingly, made up equally of men and
women, of all ages – but it was a cover of Chaka Khan’s classic I’m Every
Woman that most perfectly summed up the evening’s life-affirmingly joyous
atmosphere.

After one more night at the O2, the Detroit native’s next visit to the UK will
be in June, when she heads to Worthy Farm for Glastonbury. She is billed as
a co-headliner, set to perform before Guns N’ Roses take, for the first time,
to the Pyramid on Saturday night. Watching her on this London stage – all
roaring vocals and vivacious stage presence, her gifts as a flautist placing a
spell on the sold-out audience like some sort of twerking Pied Piper – the
secondary placement seemed an oversight; at worst, a slight. The 2023
festival will have no female headliners, which organiser Emily Eavis attributed
to a “pipeline” problem in the music industry.

Giving Lizzo top billing would have made perfect sense. Here she is, at the
peak of her career, ready to take over even more of the world. Ah, well. With
talents like hers, it’s only a matter of time.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/co...ar-headlining/