9781422270851

Breakthrough With her dreams of a meaningful music career melting away amid a flurry of frustrating days, Lizzo burst out of the bleakness surrounding her journey with a hard-hitting, life-changing masterpiece. “Truth Hurts,” a song spun together in the aftermath of a heart-stinging break-up, initially resided in the shadows of anonymity upon its 2017 release, fueling thoughts of changing career plans after many hard years filled with grinding, toiling, and touring. However, the entertaining and empowering anthem scooped up major momentum thanks to an appearance in the 2019 Netflix romantic comedy “Someone Great.” That exposure helped shove it into the mainstream while re-energizing Lizzo’s lagging confidence, boosting her self-belief, and jump starting her journey along the path to superstardom. Soon, the song was featured on the influential social media app TikTok, and there was a deluge of downloads of the 2-minute and 53-second piece. It began gobbling up valuable airplay minutes on radio stations nationwide while barging into the conversation as one of the most talked about and listened to songs of the year. Growing legions of fans began bopping and singing along to the catchy, creative, and compelling melody while savoring that one-of-a-kind voice delivering lyrics that were emboldening, enlightening, and entertaining, too. Two years after its release, “Truth Hurts” debuted smack in the middle of the Billboard Hot 100 list in mid May of 2019, landing at No. 50. By the time fall arrived, it had risen all the way to that sacred top perch on the list, where it resided for seven glorious weeks, charging into the history books as the longest-running No. 1 song by a solo female rap artist—ever. Lizzo also joined ultra-exclusive company as only the third female rapper to top the chart without a featured artist, becoming the first Black solo female R&B singer to claim the top spot since 2012. “Truth Hurts” spent 42 weeks on the chart, by far Lizzo’s most successful song in a career that has turned out multiple hits, while Rolling Stone named it one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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Lizzo