Lizzo's Twin Cities fans know just how much hard work she put in behind the scenes to get to where she is now. On Sunday, they finally got to see just how much sweat and energy she's also investing on stage these days.
For her first local headlining concert in more than two years — and what a couple of whirlwind years it's been — the ex-Minneapolitan hip-hop star did not just sing and rap about feeling good as hell. She exerted herself in a physically demanding and provocatively sexy way that proved she and her oft-cited self-esteem are indeed in great shape.
"I been sweating, doing calisthenics / booty vicious, mind your business," she boomed three songs into her 85-minute set during "Fitness," a 2018 single that foreshadowed the album and tour to come in 2019.
Prominently featuring a troupe of female dancers who worked it and twerked it even harder than the frontwoman, Sunday's long-sold-out performance at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul embodied the positive body imagery and message of self-care heard throughout Lizzo's new album, "Cuz I Love You," which debuted in Billboard's top 10 two weeks ago.
There was no question at show's end who the "you" is in the record's title, nor was there any doubt how much her quickly snowballing audience is in love with Lizzo, 31, and the empowerment she represents.
The 2,600 or so fans on hand Sunday seemed unusually worshipful from the get-go as she bellowed out the new album's deep, slow-stirring, tension-building title track. But then when the beats and dancers kicked into overdrive for the second song, "Worship," the vibe inside the Palace rapturously erupted.
That electric-church-like vibe carried over to Lizzo's frequent between-song banter. She sounded a lot like a Baptist preacher from Houston (where the real-life Melissa Jefferson lived before moving to Minneapolis in 2011) as she set up meaningful but mean-grooving anthems such as "Scuse Me" and "Soulmate."
"It's very important to work on self-love every day, because the dark days are when you need it the most," was one such monologue, as she also commiserated about falling ill just as her tour began last week.
