Feeling Good As Hell

She’s the rapping, twerking flautist spreading powerful positivity and unapologetic sass: Lizzo is the icon 2020 needs. She gets real about Black Lives Matter, mental health and making a difference.

- Barbara Tavares

It’s in the thick Brazilian heat that Lizzo arrives at a studio in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, to shoot a cover for marie claire international. She’s spent the past few days exploring the city with her crew (roughly 20 people including make-up artists, stylists, agents, dancers and security): checking out Christ the Redeemer, sizzling in a red bikini on Ipanema Beach and downing bottomless caipirinhas on a famous hotel rooftop. But the 32-year-old has one unchecked item on her bucket list. “I still want to see some Brazilian butts,” she announces, adding that she’s been flirting with cute local guys but needs to learn more Portuguese. “I say ‘oi’ and they smile back,” she says. “There’s something sexy in the air.”

Right away Lizzo affirms she doesn’t like small talk, and as the shoot gets underway she’s categorical about choosing her looks. She knows her body and she knows what she likes. And she knows how to work it: all it takes is a few clicks of the camera to get an audible “wow” from the team on set. Her feel-good anthem “Truth Hurts” blares, the song that took her to number one on the Billboard charts for six straight weeks and scored her one of her three 2020 Grammy Awards, for Best Pop Solo Performance, just days before arriving in Brazil. That night she shut down the red carpet in white old-Hollywood-inspired Versace before killing it onstage in a crystal-encrusted catsuit, then renting out a strip club to host a lavish afterparty.