Lizzo has been named as Time magazine’s Entertainer of the Year for 2019.
Lizzo has been hailed by editors at the publication as the year’s most iconic entertainer.
In a cover feature published on Wednesday, Lizzo was praised for her body positive attitude and message of “self-empowerment”.
Speaking to Time in an interview accompanying the accolade, one of several given out annually, including its Person of the Year prize, Lizzo, real name Melissa Jefferson, said pop fame had come after years of slipping under the radar.
“I’ve been doing positive music for a long-a*s time,” she explained. “Then the culture changed. There were a lot of things that weren’t popular but existed, like body positivity, which at first was a form of protest for fat bodies and black women and has now become a trendy, commercialised thing.”
Truth Hurts was originally released in 2017, but surged in popularity this year ahead of the release of her album Cuz I Love You, which has helped the 31-year-old star land eight Grammy nominations, the most of any artist.
Expressing surprise at her sudden rise, Lizzo added: “Now I’ve seen it reach the mainstream. Suddenly I’m mainstream! How could we have guessed something like this would happen when we’ve never seen anything like this before?”
Time’s Person of the Year went to its youngest ever recipient, climate activist Greta Thunberg. The 16-year-old made headlines around the world with her ‘school strike’ protesting climate change, and received the backing of stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Kim Kardashian.
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