Lizzo‘s short, but storied career may see her mostly make headlines for inciting discussions around body positivity and challenging the standard of beauty, but she’s quietly making waves in other hot topic arenas as well such as race, sexuality, and surprisingly, at just 31-years-old, age.
Join us inside….
With the ascent of her 2017 single, ‘Truth Hurts,’ to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 this week the singer/rapper became the seventh femcee in the chart’s 61-year history to earn a #1 single (click here to read more). However, her age attributes a unique feature to her ownership of the position as she is the only member of the exclusive septet to have nabbed the placement in her 30s. Furthermore, as of time reported, she’s not only the fourth female act of any genre over the age of 30 to LEAD a #1 single this decade she’s also the first woman of color since Mariah Carey to do so [see: 2008’s ‘Touch My Body’].
Could and should this encourage a broader conversation as the 2010s draw to a close?
Granted, the past 9 years may have seen no shortage of female chart-toppers (see: Cardi B, Katy Perry, Adele, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and many more), but there’s certainly been a dearth of ladies over 30 who can boast soaring to the summit as leaders. Even the likes of Beyonce and Christina Aguilera, who saw their names printed in the top spot in the past decade, only did so as featured acts of male-led songs. Conversely, there have been over a dozen male acts over 30 – solo or otherwise – who have topped the charts since January 1, 2010 (see: Flo Rida, Drake, Eminem, Pitbull, DJ Khaled, and more).
The discussion topic is by no means new as there were significantly less female than male acts to hit #1 in the noughties. The current issue? The 2010s produced less than half of the women crowned Queen of charts than its predecessor. In fact, despite being one of the four female acts to join the elite ’30 and up club’ alongside Lizzo, Sia, and Lady Gaga, P!nk – who has had two #1 singles in the past 9 years – tackled discussion about ageism in the music industry in late 2017 when she said “radio doesn’t play you when you’re over 35 unless you’re Beyonce” (click here to read more). Albeit a limited statement as Bey is certainly grouped among those in an age group generally shut out by radio, the overarching point remains an enduring truth: women over 30 don’t get the kind of chart love their male counterparts enjoy.
With this in mind, we turn to you – That Grape Juice faithful – to ask:
I had no idea Lizzo was 31. I just knew she was 24. I love her! She’s here to stay!!!
#TruthHurts
But Lizzo is hotter than you @onlyfacts
I wasn’t shading Lizzo. If anything I was saying she LOOKS 24. Lizzo is beautiful and an icon in the making. Don’t come for me, hun.
@onlyfacts Lizzo is 31 and you are 50????
Y’all obviously cannot read. I was giving Lizzo a compliment and said I love her. Wtf?
Lizzo hurts
This is surprising and kinda wack tbh, the idea that so few women of a certain age haven’t topped the charts
Is Lady GaGa getting stuff done to her face? I swear her face keeps changing. That is not a flattering pic of her above. I want my Poker Face GaGa back…this Joker Face GaGa can exit stage left.
Niet doen
‘Perfect’ wasn’t Ed Sheeran featuring Beyoncé. It was credited as a DUET. Ed Sheeran AND Beyoncé, just like Shallow. So they share the same credit. Y’all journalism sucks
Delusion convince urself
Shallow was a duet from the start, perfect was not. Beyonce jumped on that song like the vulture she is when she realised the song was bound to hit number 1.
I SAID WTF I SAID. Your opinions won’t chnge anything. Duet is credited as Ed AND Beyoncé. And it was THAT version that made it to #1. Those are the facts. All that other ra ra y’all saying doesn’t change anything or bother me or Beyoncé. So argue with your baldheaded mothers bc THERES NO DEBATE PERIOD ???
danny bey please be serious. beyonce is a FEATURE on the song. the song is on his DIVIDE album as solo. he then remixed it repeatedly
one of those remixes was with beyonce. just because she had a whole verse doesn’t make it a duet. it was a feature.
lady gaga and bradley cooper song was a duet from the jump. there was no original version by herself then he jumped on later. that’s what makes it a duet homie
The funniest thing is, the duet only charted for one week, the follow week, the normal album version without beyonce replaced it
In ed Sheeran’s native country UK , they refused to credit beyonce on the chart.
It was clearly stated DUET not ft no remix but duet she fueled it to number one and @clarkston that duet stayed number one ASA DUET more than a week do your research okr
Whew at first I read “over 300 lbs”
I literally LOL!!
I just want us black people especially black women to STOP going around saying brown/darker women can’t win in music or it’s hard for them.
Way too much pioneers who became successful because of their music not their skin color.
If that was true than Mary J Blige wouldn’t be bigger than Faith Evans( who had a bigger machine behind her) or Brandy wouldn’t be the biggest t*** R&B star of the 90s.
Now we got SZA, HER, Janelle Monae and Lizzo (who is big boneded and promotes body positivity) and she is winning.
Support all black women and stop being insecure. To be brown/dark skin is WONDERFUL in the music biz. There’s only been a few lightskin females that were big.
for as much as i can support what you’re saying,
#1 – please stay on topic. this has nothing to do with colorism
#2 – you can’t use a few examples like lizzo hitting #1 one time or lauryn hill being #1 20 years ago to justify years of clear bias against women of color and women who are of darker color
Everything you said!
Whats the bias part? Sure to tell us?
For all I know, non lightskin women in music are more successful than many lightskin artists.
You can talk about how many years ago that was but the fact there has been MORE successful darker shades of women in music invalidates whatever you disagree with.
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Btw I am on topic! Im giving praises to a chocolate sista that defies everything in the industry and consumers conditioned mindset on race in music.
That’s not on a mainstream level janelle monae does not sell records and if it wasn’t for streaming sza wouldn’t either
SZA is the leader of the pack when it comes to brown/dark women killing it in music.
And so what she’s winning “streaming wise”… aren’t we in a streaming climate now? That’s a good thing!
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Dont try to take away her accolades to help coup this “brown/dark women struggle in music” whoa is me bs. It’s a trap set by our own ppl to make that shade of color of people feel bad about themselves.
Well what can I say.
Taylor
Rihanna
Adele
Will still be hitting number 1 in their 30’s
STFU imbecile. No matter how MANY times you post on TGJ, they’re still not going to cut you a check. ISSA NO!
Grape juice please block clarksdaughter again
He’s terrorizing the comments with his non sense
I want to see the mental breakdown again
??????????????????????????????
troll alert!!!!!!
Do not engage!!!!!!
Troll alert!!!!!!’
Do not engage!!!!!’
would’ve loved to have seen how janet would’ve faired on the charts sans the superbowl.. she was still dubbed queen of radio, breaking format records and number one singles without a feature at 36
Janet would have been smashing the charts still. Her Just A Little While single that year was predicted to jump from #45 to #1 just based off radio airplay, until that Les Moonves b****** had all her music pulled off radio that very next day. He really did some serious damage to her stats.
I thought Britney was 30 when “Hold it against me” went number 1 in 2011
I did too but I looked it up
she was born in December 81, that song came out earlier that year making her 29
Y’all are reaching now trying to give people records. “Lizzo first one over 230 lbs to get a #1 this decade “
Wow congrats Lizzo she definitely outsell and slay Normani???
Oh shut up, Normani just released her first single. Lizzo’s been exploiting her fat ass for almost a whole year before her gimmick finally paid off for her.
Ahhhh the excuses
Nomano released the unknown “Waves” and flopped
Love lies with help of a rapper
dancing with the stranger = Sam Smith lead
She can’t carry a single alone by herself
Race definitely has little to do with it. Age has little to do with it. I truly believe that record labels don’t invest in older artists which is why those older artists didn’t achieve that type of chart success once they hit a certain age.
Also everyone is always looking to listen to something new, many of the artists mentioned have been in the music game for 10-20 years. People get tired of that. Lizzo is one of the new it girls and now with streaming more and more artists music is obtainable for people to listen to and expose them to artists they may have not listened to before streaming.
Remember back in the day when you requested your favorite song on the radio and waited for it to come on. Or when you had to wait three months for an album to come out after listening to the lead single on the radio and watching the video for it on trl for months.
The industry has changed tremendously and Lizzo being new to the industry gives her an advantage. Streaming gives her an advantage. Either way good for her.