Melissa (Lizzo) Jefferson
Melissa Viviane Jefferson, known professionally asLizzo, is an American singer, rapper, and flutist. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she moved to Houston with her family when she was ten years old. After college she moved to Minneapolis, where she began her recording career in hip hop music. Prior to signing with Nice Life Recording Company and Atlantic Records, Lizzo released two studio albums—Lizzobangers (2013) and Big Grrrl Small World (2015). Lizzo's first major-label EP, Coconut Oil, was released in 2016.
Lizzo attained mainstream success with the release of her third studio album, Cuz I Love You (2019), which peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200. The album spawned the singles "Juice" and "Tempo". The deluxe version of the album included Lizzo's 2017 single "Truth Hurts" which became a viral sleeper hit two years after its initial release. It topped the US Billboard Hot 100, and became the longest-leading solo song by a female rapper. Around this time, her 2016 single "Good as Hell" also climbed the charts, reaching the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. Lizzo received eight nominations at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, the most for any artist that year, including nominations for each of the "Big Four" categories; and eventually won the awards for Best Urban Contemporary Album, Best Pop Solo Performance for "Truth Hurts", and Best Traditional R&B Performance for the song "Jerome".
In 2021, Lizzo released the single "Rumors" featuring Cardi B, which debuted in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. Her fourth studio album Special (2022) was preceded by its lead single "About Damn Time", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
Aside from singing and rapping, Lizzo has also worked as an actor: she served as a voice actor in the animated film UglyDolls (2019) and appeared in the crime comedy-drama film Hustlers (2019). She is also the host of the Amazon Prime Video reality television series Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Competition Program. In 2019, Time named Lizzo as "Entertainer of the Year" for her meteoric rise and contributions to music. In addition to her four Grammy Awards, she has also won a Billboard Music Award, a BET Award, and two Soul Train Music Awards.
