Music / Film & TV
Lizzo
born 1988 · singer, rapper, flutist, actress
Grammy-winning singer and rapper of “Truth Hurts” and “About Damn Time,” born in Detroit in 1988 and raised there until age ten.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 38- Birth name
- Melissa Viviane Jefferson
- Detroit years
- 1988–1998
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Lizzo was born Melissa Jefferson in Detroit on April 27, 1988, and spent the first ten years of her life in the city before her family moved to Houston, Texas. There she took up the flute and began rapping as a teenager; after college she settled in Minneapolis, where her hip-hop career began with Lizzobangers (2013). Signing with Atlantic Records in 2016 brought her to a mass audience: “Truth Hurts” became a sleeper hit and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019, and Cuz I Love You won three Grammy Awards. Her 2022 album Special produced “About Damn Time,” which won the Grammy for Record of the Year. She has also acted in Hustlers and hosts the Emmy-winning reality series Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. Time magazine named her Entertainer of the Year in 2019.
Highlights
- Born in Detroit; lived there until her family moved to Houston when she was ten
- “Truth Hurts” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019
- “About Damn Time” won the Grammy for Record of the Year
- Four Grammy Awards and a Primetime Emmy
- Time's Entertainer of the Year, 2019