'This is our moment together': Lizzo kicks off Australian tour with ...

15 Jul 2023

The Guardian

It’s a sea of sequins and glitter among the audience. The lights go down, and neon red letters fill the screen: “THIS IS A SHOW ABOUT LOVE.”

Lizzo fans, of course, already know what they’re in for: deft lyricism, boundless warmth and pure joy. The US pop star’s last tour, Cuz I Love You Too at the start of 2020, didn’t make it to Perth; for Australia’s west coast, it’s been a long wait.

Friday night at the RAC Arena marks the first Australian show on her Special tour, and her voice fills the room almost instantly, opening with Cuz I Love You. In black leather, under a spectacle of bright red lights, she’s soulful and she’s a force: flanked on either side by her dancers, but undoubtedly the centrepiece.

The crowd is largely women, of all ages and ethnicities, many in their own sparkling outfits. There are rhinestone fringes, metallic streamers in the hair, a mother and daughter with fairy lights wrapped around themselves, and pink – so much pink. Juice and 2 Be Loved ring out across the stadium, before Lizzo speaks to us directly: “When was the last time you said something kind about yourself?” she asks. “It’s been too damn long!”

‘Though there are 15,000 of us in the crowd, there’s an intimacy that feels rare for a show of this size.’ Photograph: Duncan Barnes

Visually, the show is a delight from the beginning. At times it’s pure fun, like the neon line drawings that accompany the first half of the setlist, accordingly upbeat; elsewhere, we get artful videos of Lizzo herself, celebratory in their beauty. She launches into Soulmate, giving each of her dancers their own moment to shine, before a tidy segue into Grrrls and a thumping rendition of Boys.

For Tempo, the lights dim, the vibe gets sultry, and the dancers don’t hold back. The song features Missy Elliott in the recording; on stage, Elliott sends Lizzo an audio message: “You’re going to be around for a very, very, very long time.” Though there are 15,000 of us in the crowd, there’s an intimacy that feels rare for a show of this size. Lizzo is taking us into her world. “This is our moment together,” she tells us. “I want you to say ‘I’m special’,” prefacing her song of the same name.

And yet, Lizzo herself knows not everyone can be a fan. When she plays Rumors, comments from the internet fill the screen behind her through brightly coloured chat bubbles, ranging from the maddeningly common – “Is that a BBL?,” “She’s prettier in person” – to the comical – “Lizzo parties in the Bermuda triangle,” “Lizzo played an alien flute at Area 51.” Cardi B joins us for her verse – through a video selfie played on a screen, as though she’s FaceTiming into the room. As Like a Girl begins, Lizzo gestures to her spectacularly bejeweled microphone stand: “I want you to think of this as your ex,” she says, and kicks it to the ground.

Lizzo: ‘If you don’t leave here feeling better, then I didn’t do my job!’ Photograph: Duncan Barnes

Halfway through, we’re taken through a meditation, beginning with a guided breathing exercise, and ending with an affirmation: “I am free.” Lizzo references the meditation later on: “Did it make you feel better? … I’m back here doing it too, visualising my higher self, loving on my higher self. I can come here and sing you songs, but if you don’t leave here feeling better, then I didn’t do my job!”

As the lights go down, footage of Lizzo fills the screen, showcasing her body. “My body is beautiful,” she narrates. “My body is nobody’s business.” Purple smoke fills the room, and she re-emerges in a shimmering gold dress for Jerome. Lizzo is vocally resplendent, effortlessly hitting every note and run; she belts, she growls, she kneels to the stage to close the song. For her song Coldplay, she brings out the flute – the instrument she’s been classically trained in, mastering since childhood – and the notes float through the air. As the crowd lights up the venue, waving their phones, she tells us: “This light represents the love you have for yourself.” It’s a tender interlude, but she’s back to her usual pace soon enough. “Should we play more flute?” she asks, and the response is the loudest of the night.

Lizzo delivers with a virtuosic solo before leading into Truth Hurts, which remains the longest-running No 1 song by a solo female rap artist on the Billboard charts in history. The energy in the room is rapturous. At one point, she’s twerking and playing the flute simultaneously without missing a beat, and the crowd is, in millennial speak, here for it.

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‘It was a show about love, and that love flowed both ways.’ Photograph: Duncan Barnes

“It’s about to get funky in here,” she calls out, belting Chaka Khan’s I’m Every Woman, and into Everybody’s Gay. Rainbow lights frame the stage, and rainbow silhouettes echo her moves. On stage, Lizzo drapes herself in a flag with colours representing the LGBTQIA+ community, with the notable inclusion of brown and black stripes – Daniel Quasar’s Progress Pride flag, designed in 2015 to include and celebrate the trans community and people of colour. She dedicates this one to the queer women, and the trans women.

Notable throughout the show is the emphasis on Lizzo’s band and her dancers; she gives ample time to each individual performer, in moments that make for some of the most impressive of the night. Her inclusivity extends to the rapt room around her. She summons a flute for an audience member, a flautist, who performs a rendition of Down Under for Lizzo from the floor. She sings Birthday Girl to a birthday girl. “Ain’t no such thing as nosebleeds, baby! I love you!” she yells to those at the back – complimenting outfits, reading homemade signs (“Oh, baby, your ‘P’ is upside down.” It’s promptly turned up the right way.). She directs the cameras to a lady dressed in a hot pink cloud dress, layers of tulle, to tell her she looks beautiful.

Lizzo closes the show with the four-times platinum Good as Hell, before returning for an encore with About Damn Time. As the crowd pours out of the arena, buzzing and beaming, there’s no doubt that Lizzo did her job tonight. It was a show about love, and that love flowed both ways.

Lizzo’s tour continues this month in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland. She is also headlining Splendour in the Grass, which kicks off in Byron Bay on 21 July