Lizzo at Moody Center in Austin claims her place in pantheon of women who changed music

Is there another artist in America right now who stirs ecstatic fervor in a crowd the way Melissa Viviane Jefferson does? Deafening cheers that lasted several minutes broke out again and again during the Austin edition of The Special Tour, hosted by the rapper/singer/master flutist also known as Lizzo, at the Moody Center on Tuesday night.

Over nearly two hours, she mixed up her catalog of feel-good hits with an all-women powerhouse band and her Emmy Award-winning ten-piece dance team, the Big Grrrls, at her back. Along the way, she executed three costume changes, engaged in ample gluteal gymnastics and discussed the senior thesis of a woman in the front row (the topic was Lizzo and fat liberation).

She raised a banner for kindness, professed her love for Torchy’s Tacos and reminded us that there’s an important election coming up in a few weeks. And with raw vocal power and radiant heart, she established herself as the heir apparent to the late soul music legend Aretha Franklin.

Radical self love is Lizzo’s brand.

“In every city, I ask the same question: When was the last time you said something nice about yourself?” she said after flexing her vocal prowess on the ode to internal acceptance “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)” near the top of her set.

“Tonight is a self-love fest,” she reminded the crowd. Radical self-love is Lizzo’s brand, and she leans into it with genuine passion. Here’s a snippet of a recent pre-show prayer she posted to Instagram: “Let’s share some energy. Exchange some good energy, some high vibrations. Use us to do your will and send a message and change someone’s life if not our own, Lord God.”

It is not hyperbole to say that Lizzo, a plus-sized Black woman who has spent the last three years trying to convince everyone in the world they are worthy of love, changes lives all the time.

“If you have nothing nice to say about yourself, make something up,” she said as an intro to the 2019 song “Soulmate.” The crowd in Austin, which skewed decidedly female — and, let’s be honest, not as diverse as one would hope, considering the phenomenal display of Black excellence — threw their ones in the air and sang along to the chorus at the top of their lungs.

The Beastie Boys-sampling “Grrrls” was a jubilant bop, and it segued into a soaring version of “Boys” with a ballistic guitar and drum break under flashing purple lights that would have made Lizzo’s hero Prince proud.

The Big Grrrls shine bright.

Lizzo’s shows have always featured some rendition of the Big Grrrls dance team, a joyous hype squad of plus-sized women who break it down hard. This year, she took fans behind the scenes with the Amazon streaming series “Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” a kinder, gentler version of a reality TV show that won an Emmy for outstanding competition program this year. With that context, the profound power of the sisterhood and love between the women on stage was inspiring.

Dance breaks during “Tempo” and “Water Me” provoked thunderous cheers. And the women's energy boosted the vibe of the show throughout.

Lizzo claims her crown as one of the vocal greats of her generation.

After the first set change, Lizzo sauntered onto the stage in a pink ruffled robe as fog from the smoke machine billowed across the stage. She dropped the robe and performed “Naked” in a nude leotard that became a canvas for colored lights that swirled around her body before dissipating into a pointed message as the words “My Body, My Choice” appeared across her torso.

She lounged on a fainting couch and leaned into the power of her pipes as a sea of cell phone lights danced in the arena to the epic kiss-off “Jerome.”

She made a natural transition from “Break Up Twice” into a cover of the Lauryn Hill song it samples, “Doo Wop (That Thing),” which she rapped alongside her longtime partner and DJ, Sophia Eris.

With a brilliant rendition of Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman,” she claimed her place in the ranks of not just the greatest vocalists of her generation, but also the pantheon of powerful women who have altered the landscape of the music industry.

Lizzo endorses 'you the people' to make a change.

She didn’t make an official electoral endorsement after pointing out a "Beto for Texas" sign in the crowd. (As the sign flashed on the big screen, the crowd screamed wildly for a couple minutes.)

“We live in an interesting time,” she said when the roar died down. “It's hard to not be political. I want to endorse you, the people. I trust you to go out and make a change in the country.”

She warned us not to get distracted and to vote in the upcoming midterm election, noting that “everybody deserves human rights. We shouldn't have to beg.”

“I'm a fat Black girl from Houston, Texas. Don't I deserve to be protected? LGBTQIA+ community, don't you deserve to be protected?” she asked. Then the arena exploded with rainbow colored lights and she played the new dance jam “Everybody's Gay.”

The personal is political, and Lizzo's primary focus in the show was on raising the frequency of kindness and love. After a rafter-rattling rendition of “Truth Hurts,” she turned the house lights on and spent a good ten minutes letting the crowd know she saw us, calling out different sections from the top to the bottom of the arena, and giving individual compliments to concert-goers.

After ending the main part of the set with “Good As Hell,” she returned for “Juice.” As the song ended, she stood on the stage and basked in the love of the rapturous crowd.

“I thank God every day for people like you,” she said. “Being in person with you, face to face, there's nothing like that feeling. Thank you so much for lifting me up, and I hope I've done the same for you.”

And then she took it home with this summer’s banger, “About Damn Time,” leaving us with one final dance break, one final groovy flute solo and one final burst of life-affirming joy.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lizzo's Special Tour brings radiant joy to Austin's Moody Center