Lizzo played her first public concert in two years on Wednesday night at the Wiltern in Los Angeles to support the release of her upcoming album, “Lizzo in Real Life.”
During the span of an hour, Lizzo performed her biggest hits with a complete band, delivering the first live performances of the album’s two singles, “Love in Real Life,” and the dance-floor ready “Still Bad.” The upcoming LP will be the Grammy-winning singer’s first solo album since 2022’s “Special.”
Lizzo kicked off the night on electric guitar, shredding through “Love In Real Life,” “Juice” and “Rumors,” introducing the latter by slyly nodding, “Have you heard my name in the last few… weeks?”
The room erupted in thunderous applause and speculative chatter, of course, as Lizzo’s hiatus from music was not self-imposed. Her time off stage and away from music was occupied with legal drama and accusations from her former employees of harassment in the workplace, including claims of sexual harassment and bullying from three of her former dancers and her former stylist.
Though she didn’t address the lawsuits directly, Lizzo said she was in “such a dark depression” for the last few years and came out of it thanks to the support of her fans.
“I was so heartbroken by the world, and so deeply hurt that I didn’t want to live anymore and I was so deeply afraid of people that I didn’t want to be seen. Eventually, I got over that fear, I went to a concert, kind of like this… and as I was walking through the crowds and something miraculous happened: someone I didn’t know, looked at me and said ‘Lizzo, I love you.’”
She credited the love of her fans “in real life” for pushing her to continue, and inspiring the title of her new album: “After that I was like ‘Damn, you can’t get this shit on the internet bro… this is the kind of love you only get in real life.’”
Lizzo was previously scheduled to play The Made In America Festival — a two-day event in September that had Lizzo and SZA billed as co-headliners — in 2023 as her first post-lawsuit concert, though it was canceled due to “severe circumstances outside of production control.” The last time she appeared in L.A. for a public concert was when the “Special” tour hit the Kia Forum in November of 2022.
She will be performing two more intimate, theatre-sized shows in New York and Minneapolis in March ahead of her album release.
“LIZZO IN REAL LIFE” Setlist
“Love in Real Life”
“Juice”
“Rumors” (including a bit of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on guitars)
“Boys” (including a recorded snippet of Drake and PartyNextDoor’s “Nokia”)
“Tempo”
“Break Up Twice”
“Good as Hell”
“Cuz I Love You”
“Still Bad”
“Truth Hurts”
“Special”
“About Damn Time”