Perezmas 2019: 1 Breakout Year For Lizzo!

On the 1st day of Perezmas, pop culture gave to us…

1 Breakout Year For Lizzo!!!

Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) has been hustling for over a decade trying to make a name for herself in the music biz. Although she struggled for years and nearly gave up completely, that juice inside her just didn’t run out — and it all paid off in 2019 with her meteoric rise to fame!

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Admittedly, a lot of y’all had been sleeping on her for quite some time — but this year, the singer was impossible to ignore. 2019 was 100% the Year of Lizzo!

It started on January 4 with the release of her Juice video. This catchy self-love anthem was the first time many had heard of the Detroit-born songstress. But it actually came off her third studio album, Cuz I Love You, which dropped later this year on April 19.

The release of the album marked a turning point in Lizzo’s career: it debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 and eventually peaked at number four on the chart, three months after its initial release. Around this time, the star started gaining more mainstream attention, and immediately used her platform to advocate for body positivity and self-love.

Following the release of her album, Lizzo performed at the Coachella Music Festival for the first time. Meanwhile, the masses were finally starting to appreciate her earlier work: Lizzo’s 2017 single Truth Hurts started gaining popularity after inspiring an internet meme on TikTok and being featured in the 2019 Netflix film Someone Great.

Truth Hurts has since become Lizzo’s first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first black solo female R&B singer to claim the top spot on the Hot 100 since Rihanna‘s 2012 hit Diamonds. It topped the chart for seven weeks — making it tied for the longest Hot 100 reign ever for rap song by a female artist (along with Iggy Azalea’s Fancy) — and was added to the deluxe version of Cuz I Love You.

While the track may have found success in 2019, it almost caused the performer to quit music altogether when she dropped it just a few years ago. In a June interview with People, Lizzo said the day she released Truth Hurts was “probably one of the darkest days I’ve had ever” due to the initial lack of interest. She explained:

“The day I released Truth Hurts was probably one of the darkest days I’ve had ever in my career. I remember thinking, ‘If I quit music now, nobody would notice. This is my best song ever, and nobody cares.’ ..I was like, ‘F**k it, I’m done.’ And a lot of people rallied; my producer, my publicist and my family, they were like, ‘Just keep going because this is the darkest before the dawn.’ …Now the song that made me want to quit is the song that everyone’s falling in love with me for, which is such a testament to journeys: Your darkest day turns into your brightest triumph.”

Although there were many triumphs for Lizzo this year — she gave flawless performances at the BET Awards and the MTV VMAs, made her big screen acting debut in the comedy-drama Hustlers, and went on to be nominated for EIGHT Grammys — the rising star also experienced some minor setbacks.

During the summer, the 31-year-old was hit with plagiarism accusations over Truth Hurts. Rapper Mina Lioness took to social media to reveal that she was the mastermind behind the track’s iconic lyric, “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch,” claiming the lyric came from a meme that came from a tweet she wrote months before the song was written.

Lizzo also faced controversy from two producers who previously worked with her on a demo titled Healthy. The producers reached out to us exclusively in October to allege that Truth Hurts “clearly contains lyrics and musical material contained in the song Healthy” and insist that they were entitled to a piece of her hit song.

The star responded to the controversies with sass and class. She took to Instagram to declare that the male producers did not help her write the track in any way, so they did not deserve any earnings from the chart-topper. She did, however, decide to share a piece of her Truth Hurts pie with Mina, making the rapper an official co-writer on the track.

Liz closed out the year with her Saturday Night Live debut on the show’s December 21 episode, serving as the musical guest in the final episode of the year and decade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuENwwT5rSg

Staying true to her mission, the star celebrated her SNL debut with a super inspirational message to fans — and her younger self.

Taking to social media, Lizzo shared a pic of her working as a sign-spinner alongside a pic from her SNL debut, encouraging her followers to work hard and not give up on their dreams:

Turns out, Lizzo is 100% an inspiration to us all. Congrats to a fabulous, successful year, gurl!

We can’t wait to see what she blesses us with in 2020!

[Image via YouTube/STX Entertainment/WENN]