for This year's update of our ongoing work The greatest pop star of the year Project Billboard is counting down our staff picks for the Top 10 Pop Stars of 2022 all this week. villa. 6, we remember the year in Lizzo — which once again used a runaway viral smash as a springboard for a total pop-cultural spread.
2022 wasn't just a "special" year for Lizzo - it was the year she proved her ability to navigate and lead the pop scene alongside newcomers and veterans alike.
Three years after its seismic breakthrough with Cuz I love youLizzo entered the new decade unproven as a major force in pop music. In 2021, she unveiled "Rumours", a Cardi B-assisted indie single that debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and faded away too quickly to really keep the excitement from her previous singles "Truth Hurts" and "Good as Hell". But the brief silence that followed would eventually give way to a year that yielded Lizzo's fastest-moving, highest-grossing album of her career - while expanding her reach in various fields of entertainment and crafting a cohesive and powerful public image to be complemented by pop stardom.
Billboard The greatest pop stars of 2022:
Honorable mentions and introduction | Rookie of the Year: Steve Lacy | Comeback of the Year: Sam Smith | number. 10: Nicki Minaj | number. 9: Futures | number. 8: Jack Harlow | number. 7: Doja Cat
When Lizzo resurfaces in 2022, she chooses television, rather than music, as her point of entry. Lizzo Watch out for the Big Grrrls, an unscripted reality competition series chronicling the journey of becoming one of Lizzo's dancers, debuted on Amazon Prime - her first project under her production deal with Amazon Studios. Lizzo cleverly used the launch of the show, which met with generally positive critical reception, to launch her fitting return to the music scene. a day ago Watch out for the big Grrrls Lizzo has announced the release date for "About Damn Time".
The following week, in a move straight out of the playbook for pop titans past and present, Lizzo previewed another project: This time, she'd venture into the world of lingerie with Yitty, her collaboration with Fabletics. Through a series of cleverly serialized ads and releases, Lizzo has re-emerged as a full-fledged pop star—one whose brand has permeated various industries and achieved successful returns in all of them.
By April, Lizzo has focused her attention squarely on music. "About Damn Time", an uplifting disco anthem for affirmation, was released on April 15, along with the announcement of its parent album, Special. With a quiet start at No. 50, "About Damn Time" got off to a much slower start on the Hot 100 than "Rumors". However, Lizzo used the familiarity and bottled momentum she gained on TikTok in 2020 to report her aggressive promotion of the song on the platform. Thanks to the added exposure from a dance direction created by TikTok personality Jaeden Gomez, "About Damn Time" reached the top 10 of the Hot 100 in its fourth week.
In a move that shifted Lizzo's promotional approach from that of a mid-level pop star to one that more reflective of the superstar's style, it capitalized on how the song connected to audiences on an emotional and political level. Apparently, "About Damn Time" made people feel good, hence the cute dances that Lizzo would often stitch up and repost on her official TikTok page. But she also knew the song would make people feel powerful: On her April 8 TikTok, Lizzo used a snippet of "About Damn Time" to celebrate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's historic appointment to the US Supreme Court. during its performance Of the song at the 2022 BET Awards, Lizzo declared, “It's time for us to stand up for our strength. Black people, my people.” This combination of marketing savvy and an innate ability to create music that can mean different things to different audiences at different times led to "About Damn Time" becoming Lizzo's second top 100 hit in late July, and ultimately one of the hottest songs of 2022.
When "About Damn Time" reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, Special, magnified to no. 2 on the Billboard 200. Although the collection had a less enthusiastic reception than its predecessor, Special It had the best first week of Lizzo's career to date, with 69,000 units moved. Special It debuted alongside "Lizzoverse", a cosmic light show streamed from Twitch that found Lizzo leveraging another media platform to broaden the reach of her music and brand.
despite Special It was banned from the top of the Billboard 200 by the brutal Bad Bunny Un verano cin tThe album's strong performance proved that Lizzo has built herself a large following of fans who are guaranteed to appear for her, regardless of whether her albums are full of boisterous guest artists. Special It also spawned another minor hit on "2 B Loved (Am I Ready)", which Lizzo highlighted in an impressive performance in a medley with "Time" at the MTV Video Music Awards in August. Outside of hit singles, the Special The campaign showed how deftly Lizzo could maneuver controversy afterwards, with humility I changed the lyric on "Grrrls", one of the group's promotional singles, which was criticized as capable.
Although singles campaign Special Seemingly ending with "2 B Loved," Lizzo remains a prominent figure in pop culture in 2022, and continues to amass even more cultural capital. In September, Lizzo embarked on her first arena tour. The opening round featured Latto and Saucy Santana, two rappers who each turned 2022 into career-defining years, and surprise guests on various stops, including Missy Elliott (“Tempo”), Cardi B (“Rumors”), and SZA ("Special").
A week into the tour, Lizzo, a classically trained flutist, found herself at the center of a storm of controversy when she played a crystal flute to 209-year-old James Madison while flapping onstage. Ultimately, the controversy did not last because, like the Library of Congress chirpLizzo's performance with the historical instrument was "not all that unusual". In fact, the controversy did more to expose her critics' hatred and fat phobia — and showed that the general public would rush to Lizzo's defense. Two weeks before she was released for the special tour, Watch out for the big Grrrls Earning three awards at the Primetime Emmy Awards, he elevated Lizzo halfway to EGOT status.
As 2022 draws to a close, Lizzo has continued to rack up awards and nominations. She earned nods for herself and "About Damn Time" at the American Music Awards, as well as winning Soul Train Music Awards (Best Dance Performance), MTV Video Music Awards (Video of Best), and People's Choice Awards (Song) from 2022 ). At the People's Choice Awards, he used Lizzo Her acceptance speech The People's Champion Award for uplifting and amplifying the marginalized voices of 17 activists including Tamika Palmer, mother of the late Breonna Taylor. Once again, Lizzo has found a way to use her passion for activism and political empowerment to continue to transcend and reinvent what stardom can look like.
The year closed out with its premiere Love, Lizzo Documentary on HBO Max, writing credit on the acclaimed SZA SOS With the album and five Grammy nominations including Album, Record and Song of the Year, Lizzo ends 2022 with solid Pop Star uppercuts — and it's damn time.
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