The Cuz I Love You Too US tour officially ended at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on Monday, Oct. 28. It was the second night Lizzo [1] performed at the auditorium alongside her DJ, Sofia Eris, as well as opener Empress Of. Rising behind a pulpit placed at the centre of stage, Lizzo [2] left the auditorium feeling more like a mega church than a music venue. Even though Lizzo's name was carved into the pulpit, this wasn't a Kanye-esque worship of self — instead, Lizzo preached a sermon of learning to love thy self.
"This is self care for me," Lizzo told the screaming crowd. "By empowering yourself and your identities you're uplifting the whole damn world."
While to many Lizzo is a necessary force of change within a music industry that has often excluded women of colour who don't meet certain Eurocentric standards of beauty [3], Lizzo's path to success was not an easy one. Even her song "Truth Hurts" [4] — which recently spent seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 — received little to no attention when it was originally released in 2016. Calling the songs failed release one of her darkest days [5], Lizzo has made it to where she is now due to sheer determination and her incredible musical talent.
Lizzo showed off this will to persevere when she sat down, overcome with emotion, during the title track of her album, "Cuz I love You". Head in her hands, it almost felt like someone was going to come escort her off stage in James Brown fashion. But unlike the godfather of funk, Lizzo didn't need any one to help her up — when Lizzo's down, she gets back up looking better than ever. Ahead, see more highlights from her show in SF.
Opening up with "Heaven Help Me", Lizzo [7] was quickly joined by her dancers who were, of course, in badass Lizzo [8] style, all women of different body types and mostly women of colour. Lizzo has always been upfront with the fact that her music is made to centre and uplift black women [9], cis and non-cis gendered.
"This music is medicine and I'm trying to get it to my sisters. It's so exciting to me to finally be at a level where I have exposure to my Black sisters, my big sisters, my Black trans sisters," she said in a profile by Essence Magazine [10]. "It's not about being poppin', it's not about being famous or fashion — it's about being better and making sure that this world can hear us and respect us."
Now that her US tour has finished, Lizzo [14] is off to bring her talents across the pond for the European leg of the Cuz I Love You Too tour. Theres no place in the world that doesn't need a lesson on radical self love and hopefully Lizzo is able to spread her gospel far and wide. No borders could contain Lizzo's message just as no genre can define her. [15] We can't wait to see what's next for the superstar and won't be surprised if she takes a break for her own self care after the world tour officially ends.