If Lizzo says it, it must be true. “If I am shinin’ everybody’s gonna shine.”
Lizzo’s upbeat music and positive lyrics catapulted her to the top of pop and R&B music charts alike after she made her way onto mainstream radio stations.
In just four short years, Lizzo’s first hit singles, Truth Hurts and Scuse Me released years earlier, started playing on Canadian radio, and now she is competing with the likes of Beyoncé, Adele, and Harry Styles for the Album of the Year Award at the 2023 Grammys.
The pop icon exudes many things – confidence, body acceptance, self-love, kindness and #girlpower.
While I feel it's impossible to not admire Lizzo, who is a self-proclaimed band geek and a flute aficionado, one thing that can’t be argued with is that her positive speech on female friendships is truly admirable.
With lyrics like, “In case nobody told you today, you're special,” “'cause that's my girl, we codependent, if she with it, then I'm with it,” and “I'm not the girl I was or used to be... I might be better,” fans young and old are embracing positive self-talk.
Personally, I am finding myself obsessed with this new emergence of music by women for women promoting healthy relationships with ourselves, other women and even in romantic partnerships.
While songs about heart break and unrequited love will never go out of fashion, it is refreshing to hear music that inspires us to be kinder to ourselves and others.
With so many movies and TV shows depicting repetitive tropes of women pitting themselves against other women – usually over some average love interest – seeing a new generation of female artists focused on friendships over drama is something to applaud.
Times are changing, and I think even Dolly Parton would agree and be proud. Most recently, I have been pondering the differences in Parton’s timeless song Jolene with her Goddaughter’s newest single Flowers.
Miley Cyrus’s latest single truly highlights the progression and changes women have made over the last 50 years between the release of these two songs in 1973 and 2023.
At the Women of Influences Awards ceremony in Cold Lake on March 3, emcee and lawyer Stephanie Oleksyn noted that little girls are not born thinking of mean things to say to other little girls in relation to appearance, one's clothing or weight. These things are taught, she said.
Whether directly or indirectly children are being shown and taught how to judge and be unkind to others. If we want the next generation to be kinder, we need to show kindness to everyone around us – including ourselves.
