Lizzo treats every song like it’s a grand finale. Opening her first UK tour since 2019, she bursts on stage in a sequinned nude illusion catsuit, poker-straight blond hair cascading down her back. After high-kicking through The Sign, the cheeky opener to 2022’s Grammy-nominated album Special, she storms through 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready), a synth-pop powerhouse packed with hand claps and key changes and a euphoric call-and-response chorus. Four neon-clad dancers arrive (then eight, then 10!) and Lizzo conducts them like a ringleader from atop glamorously curved, glowing risers. Even the highest tiers of the arena are dancing in the aisles, and when the song is over Lizzo holds both fists in the air like she’s just won gold. It feels overwhelmingly triumphant – and there’s still two hours left on the clock.
A true multi-hyphenate, Melissa Jefferson is a rapper-singer-songwriter-dancer-flautist-CEO. Over a decade she’s metamorphosed from being a leftfield rapper in Minneapolis to being a globally adored superstar who has changed the face of pop. But even with four Grammys on the mantelpiece, there’s no trace of complacency: tonight’s show is relentlessly aerobic, theatrical, emotional, hilarious.
