By Chiara Piacentini
Staff Writer
In recognition of Women’s History Month, it’s about damn time we recognize Melissa Jefferson, the woman we know as Lizzo, for adding a fourth Grammy Award to her collection this year.
The “Truth Hurts” singer won the Record of the Year award at the 2023 Grammy Awards for her most recent No. 1 hit song “About Damn Time.” She’s the first black woman to win this award since Whitney Houston won it back in 1994 for her performance of “I Will Always Love You.”
Lizzo’s journey to fame was not an easy one. Back in 2009, her career pursuits were derailed when tragedy struck during her sophomore year at the University of Houston. At 21, Lizzo had lost her father. She found herself dropping out of college, living out of her car and sneaking into the local gym for showers.
“I was sad and disappointed in myself, because I’d always been so advanced in school, the golden child,” she told Texas Music Magazine.
Her saving grace came in the form of a Craigslist advertisement looking for a lead singer. She remained with the band until 2011 when she moved to Minneapolis; Prince co-signed her music and she even got the chance to star in his 2014 song, “Boy Trouble.”
In September 2017, Lizzo suffered another setback when she released “Truth Hurts” — it faded into obscurity a few months after its release. It broke her to the point where she almost left the music industry altogether, but she decided to stay the course.
In the end, her resilience paid off. In 2019, the song made a miraculous comeback. Lizzo’s increasing presence within the media at the start of that year could explain how the song became an overnight sensation on TikTok, earning 162 million views by April. To add to its increasing popularity, the track got featured in Netflix’s comedy film, “Someone Great,” when the main character, played by Gina Rodriguez, breaks into a dance and raps the lyrics to the entire song. This scene immediately went viral, landing “Truth Hurts” the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart by September.
In 2020, “Truth Hurts” allowed her to walk away with three Grammys to her name — and to top it off, two years later she partnered with Fabletics to launch her own fashion business. Her fashion line revolutionized the shapewear industry for creating clothing that promotes more body positivity while at the same time advocating for more representation of black women in the fashion industry. She named it after the nickname she gave her aunt, Yitty, to reflect the energy and the message of the brand: developing shapewear that allows people of all shapes and sizes to have the freedom of feeling comfortable in their own skin.
With the growth of both her business and her music, Lizzo has earned a high reputation among the public as a female entrepreneur and professional singer. In fact, her songs are written in alignment with and to bring awareness to the Women’s Rights Movement. “Truth Hurts,” for example, talks about female empowerment in which a woman doesn’t need a man to help build a stable career for themselves.
Her fashion business also represents successful black women in business. It’s not clear how much Yitty has made in profits over the years, but the revenue of its parent company, Fabletics, is a good indicator. According to Forbes, Fabletics earned over $400 million in 2020 and by 2021, Axios reported that it had raked in another $500 million.
With these achievements in mind, Lizzo embodies the core values of Women’s History Month and remains to be seen as an inspiration to other aspiring female singers and entrepreneurs.
