Lizzo Bares All at a Laker’s Game While Her Song Plays
Lizzo’s fans love how she expresses herself without caring about the opinions of others. Lizzo displayed her independent streak on Dec. 8, 2019, when she twerked at a Laker’s game. Here’s the details behind the head-turning incident.
Lizzo turns heads at Laker’s game
As an artist, Lizzo is not known for her modesty. The cover of her breakthrough album, Cuz I Love You, depicts the singer in the nude. Many Lizzo songs feature risque lyrics about the singer’s love life.
Lizzo took things farther than she usually does at an L.A. Lakers game. For most sports fans, such events are a time to get lost in the game. They’re more concerned with watching the game than anything else.
Lizzo isn’t your average fan. According to Elle, the singer and her friends arrived at the game wearing matching outfits. Later, cheerleaders began to perform a routine to Lizzo’s song “Juice.” It must have been great for Lizzo to see, as it shows how popular her music has become over the last year.
Lizzo decided to become part of the show in her own way. In her seat, the singer started to twerk for a Jumbotron to the beat of “Juice.” To make things more scandalous, she was wearing a dress with holes in the back, a thong, and fishnets. The outfit left little to the imagination. Lizzo was briefly displayed on the Jumbotron as she twerked.
This moment fits well with Lizzo’s brand. Teen Vogue describes the singer as “body positive” and notes twerking was a major part of her teenage rebellion phase, alongside the music of Destiny’s Child and Missy Elliott. Sex is also a major theme in her music, which hearkens back to the work of sex symbols like Prince and Janet Jackson.
A brief history of twerking in pop
Lizzo’s twerking is part of the short and prominent history of twerking in popular music. While the dance move originated in the early 1990s, it was first mentioned in a song by a mainstream artist in 2000. That was the year the Ying Yang Twins released their surprisingly influential song ”Whistle While You Twurk.”
The dance move was further popularized in 2002 when Christina Aguilera and Redman released the music video for their song “Dirty.” The video garnered attention for being perhaps the most explicit music video of its time. The video featured Aguilera twerking and wearing several revealing outfits in a post-apocalyptic setting.
Other artists to embrace the dance around that time include Beyoncé, Silkk the Shocker, and Justin Timberlake. The dance seemed to have been forgotten by the end of the 2000s. However, one musician changed everything.
In 2013, Miley Cyrus twerked in her music video “We Can’t Stop.” A few months later, she twerked on Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. Thanks to Cyrus, the dance came back into the popular consciousness. Twerking will forever be associated with the over-the-top image Cyrus crafted for herself in the 2010s.
It remains to be seen if Lizzo twerking at the Lakers game will become as iconic as Cyrus twerking on MTV. At the very least, this is another example of Lizzo’s free spirit. Twerking may be a common dance, but Lizzo’s personality is uniquely hers.
