100% her year: How Lizzo became the one thing we all loved in 2019
LOS ANGELES - Lizzo's dressing room at the Forum felt as if it would collapse at any moment from the piercing screams of fans.
In the arena, 17,000 tweens and teens were greeting, at delirious volume, K-pop phenomenon BTS, co-headliners this early December evening, alongside Lizzo, Billie Eilish and Katy Perry, of KIIS-FM's Jingle Ball, the annual processional of the year's most au courant hitmakers.
Backstage, the 31-year-old singer-rapper-flutist was curled up on a leather couch in leopard-print pants and a nude blouse. "This is almost surreal," she said, leaning closer to the wall to feel the commotion.
In an hour or so, Lizzo would take the stage to a similarly joyful noise, a remarkable turn of events for an artist who has defied most of the modern rules of pop stardom in her unexpected ascent to the top of the charts.
Six years after releasing her first album - so long ago, Macklemore(!) was headlining Jingle Ball - she broke into the top 10 with her delightfully peppy major-label debut, "Cuz I Love You," featuring the inescapable No. 1 Hot 100 empowerment jam "Truth Hurts."
Pop stars
