Lizzo

📍Alief, Houston, Texas, USA

“Melissa Viviane Jefferson, known as Lizzo, was born in Detroit in April 1988, and when she was about ten her family moved to Houston, settling in Alief, a sprawling, diverse district on the city's south-west side. Her parents raised their three children in a devout Christian household, and she grew up singing gospel music at church; she has said that the church gave her her voice and her sense of performance, and later a sense of community. In fifth grade she picked up the flute in her school band, and she fell in love with it, training classically for eight years. At Alief Elsik High School she played in the marching band and studied with the principal flautist of the Houston Ballet. Houston's hip-hop scene was all around her, from DJ Screw's slowed-down sound to Destiny's Child, and at fourteen she formed a rap group with friends called Cornrow Clique. It was then that she picked up her nickname, Lizzo, a twist on Lissa inspired by Jay-Z's song Izzo. She has spoken about feeling self-conscious about her body as a teenager, and about learning to love herself. After high school she studied classical music at the University of Houston before leaving to focus on music. In 2011 she moved to Minneapolis, where she built a career in its indie and hip-hop scenes. Her songs Truth Hurts and Good as Hell became huge hits in 2019, celebrating self-love and confidence, and she still plays the flute on stage, the instrument she first fell in love with in Houston.”

Sources: blackpast.org thegrio.com Wikipedia: Lizzo