It’s about time!
Pop superstar Lizzo has become one of the few Black and plus-sized women to grace the cover of Vogue, CNN reports.
Melissa Viviane Jefferson, also known as “Lizzo”, is pop culture’s newest phenom. She’s taken the mainstream entertainment industry by force last year as a multi hyphenate talent, spewing endless bops and body normative motivation. The three-time Grammy winner is now on the cover of the October issue of Vogue in a flowing red Valentino dress. She was photographed by legendary director Hype Williams, a first for the music industry veteran as well.
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Accompanying her picture is a profile written by poet Claudia Rankine. In her historic Vogue cover, Lizzo discusses everything from her career origins as a musician in Minneapolis to the militarized police state that has claimed the lives of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The cover, released just one day after the acquittal of Taylor’s murderers, is more representation of a slow, but necessary shift in popular culture to support Black women in all their genius, grace and glory.
“At a time of unprecedented strife, struggle, and opportunity, Vogue meets up – at a distance – with Lizzo, the musical sage who wants us to get through this moment together,” Vogue magazine shared in a statement.
“I am the first big Black woman on the cover of @voguemagazine. The first Black anything feels overdue. But our time has come. To all my Black girls, if someone like you hasn’t done it yet – BE THE FIRST. This is the Blackest and brownest @voguemagazine ever – and I have to brag,” Lizzo told her followers.
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In addition to her work as an artist, Lizzo has been active in utilizing her platform for the betterment of humanity. She speaks out against injustice, feed essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and helps support Australian wildfire victims. In her interview with Rankine, the 32-year-old said she feels that it is her duty.
“A lot of times I feel like we get distracted by the veneer of things. If things appear to be better, but they’re not actually better, we lose our sense of protest…But I want actual change to happen…in the laws. And not just on the outside, you know? Not a temporary fix to a deep-rooted, systemic issue,” Lizzo said to Rankine.
Congratulations Lizzo! You deserve all the roses you’re getting!
Photo Courtesy of Hype Williams/Vogue