Lizzo’s Exuberant Emmys Speech Was a Celebration of Fat, Black Representation

Last night, Lizzo won an Emmy for her show Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. In her teary-eyed, emotional acceptance speech, she championed the representation of fat, Black women and celebrated her costars, who surrounded her in pure excitement on stage. “The trophy is nice,” the 34-year-old pop star said, “but my emotion is for these people who are on this stage with me.”

The show, currently streaming on Amazon Prime, features dancers of all body shapes and sizes who hope to join the singer’s performance troupe. They learn the choreography of Lizzo’s set throughout the show’s eight episodes, with the hope of being chosen to join her on stage at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The show has been praised for celebrating fat, Black, and queer women, without pitting them against each other or tearing anyone down under the guise of “competition.”

“While the show’s focus on fat, Black, and queer women is inherently political, it’s not actively preaching body positivity or fat acceptance,” writer Samantha Grasso posits in a review for Discourse Blog. “At least, not in the way that Instagram or TikTok influencers sell these things. The contestants talk about the way the world has treated them because of their size and their relationship to dance, but, unlike other shows with fat contestants, their backgrounds aren’t exploited to become explanations for their size.”

In her acceptance speech, the “About Damn Time” singer also emphasized that the voices she amplified in Watch Out for the Big Grrrls usually don’t get attention in popular culture and that ultimately needs to change. “The stories that they shared, they’re not unique,” she said. “They just don’t get the platform. Telling stories, let’s just tell more stories.”

Creating a show like this—and winning an Emmy for it—also fulfilled a dream she’d had since she was a child. “When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media, someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me,” she said. “If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, I’d be like, ‘You’re going to see that person, but bitch it’s going to have to be you.’”

Lizzo congratulated the show’s cast at the end of her acceptance speech, which you can watch on her Instagram. The pure joy is evident in her voice—and the caption she shared in her post truly sums up what this night meant to her and to anyone who may look like her.

“This is for the big grrrls who now live in a world with a little more representation,” she wrote. “Where they are treated with respect. To not be the punchline of a tiredass fat joke. To be loved. To be talented. To be great. We do this because representation changes the culture and can change lives.”

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Source: SELF