Lizzo’s Melbourne show was just the tonic we need right now
After volunteering at Foodbank for bushfire victims, Lizzo turned her extraordinary and energetic Forum show into the world’s coolest TED talk for positivity and it was the escapism we needed right now.
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Back when Lizzo released Boys in June 2018 she included a crowd chanting her name back at her during the song.
That was probably partially wishful thinking – she was still a cult act who’d been hustling for years but hadn’t had her breakthrough moment.
Boys, inexplicably, wouldn’t be it. Neither were the singles that preceded it – 2016’s Good as Hell and 2017’s Truth Hurts.
The world finally caught up to Lizzo last year, and those older singles became new hits, proving she was ahead of her time. Maybe Boys is about to find it’s time to shine?
She’s been following her album Cuz I Love You around the world for the last year, and now it’s Australia’s turn.
Her Melbourne sideshow at the Forum sold out in under two minutes. And when Lizzo dropped Boys, even though those prerecorded crowd chants were played via her DJ Sophia, she didn’t need them.
The energy level in the Forum was truly extraordinary. The audience sang not only those chants, but pretty much the rest of Boys at lung-busting volume.
“They don’t go crazy for Boys like that in the States,” Lizzo, who doesn’t seem easily shocked these days, said — clearly shocked. “That has made my f---king day.”
Three minutes into Lizzo’s Forum show it was instantly apparent that this is the last time we’ll see her in a venue this small. It was like when Destiny’s Child played shopping centres here way, way back in the day. You knew it was a mere stepping stone.
While this may be a club tour, and she’s touring not with a band but a DJ and dancers, she treated it like she was headlining a stadium.
Opening with Good as Hell, Lizzo ploughed through a relentless, non-stop 70 minute set with shades of her heroes Janet Jackson, Chaka Khan and Prince.
She also turned the night into the world’s coolest TED talk for positivity, getting the crowd to literally repeat back to her “I deserve self-love and I deserve to be loved as much as I love myself and I love myself more than Lizzo loves herself and that’s a lot, bitch.”
Lizzo christened 2020 as a “f---boi” free zone before introducing Jerome, stating “December 31, 2019 was my last day dealing with f---bois.”
Before Tempo she asked “where my thick bitches at? I passed out the Tim Tams before the show so we wouldn’t have this problem.”
In the state Australia is in, Lizzo was tonic we needed right now — positive, fun, escapist but also acutely aware of the world and how to harness her influence.
Lizzo spent yesterday in Melbourne volunteering at Foodbank (“I was so overwhelmed by the love. They were saying thank you so much for being here. Thank me? Thank you bitch! This is the least I can do to put a smile on y’alls faces during this tragedy”), visiting a koala sanctuary and visiting the Royal Botanical Gardens – as documented on her Instagram stories.
At the end of the show, as well as asking for donations, holding a toy koala she named “Mel”, she took time out to address the bushfire crisis and stated that she originally thought she might postpone her Australian tour thinking playing her music during a national emergency could potentially be bad timing.
“Then I realised there’s no such thing as the wrong timing. When I came here, I wanted to do everything I could to help bring awareness to the world of the tragedy that is happening. This isn’t just an Australian crisis, this is a global crisis. Most people don’t understand that but I will not shut up about it until we all realise that is our planet that we share. This is our home that we all inhabit. This wildlife is just as we are, it deserves to live just as much as we do.”
READ MORE:
LIZZO PACKS HAMPERS FOR BUSHFIRE VICTIMS
OPERA HOUSE PACKED FOR LIZZO SHOWS
WHO WILL HEADLINE SOUND RELIEF RETURN?
And the old Melbourne v Sydney debate just got a new spokesperson, with Lizzo casting her vote our way.
“I don’t want to be a messy bitch but you’re my favourite city in Australia,” she told Melbourne, after apologising for the American pronunciation earlier on.
“And I played the Sydney Opera House two nights in a row. The energy in this room … and rachet-ass Adelaide cannot compare …”
After ending the show with a flawless run of Like a Girl, Soulmate and Juice, she busted out her trusty flute named Sasha for an all-too-brief burst during the finale Truth Hurts.
After watching her with her band on SNL before Christmas, you can picture Lizzo’s next move with actual musicians on stage – if she’s this interactive with a DJ and dancers, imagine what’s coming next.
Lizzo plays the FOMO Festival at Melbourne Showgrounds on Sunday, bushfire relief ticket options are available
