Introduce yourself to Lizzo, who may just be pop music's next big star

There's a lot of brilliant pop talent beyond Spotify's Australia Top 50 and what you hear on Nova, and upon diving into this realm of up-and-coming stars in the making, you can often find gold. Artists including Billie Eilish once stood inside this field of pop music, offering the bright, catchy hooks and sensational songwriting you typically find on radio but in ways you won't find in your Ariana Grande's - welcoming something different, refreshing and unique to the table that makes the over-saturated world of music-making that little more digestible; perhaps why her recent climb to dominance has been so heavily applauded and well-received.

Minneapolis rapper/singer Lizzo is an act who may definitely be among the new generation of pop music. She's been around for a while - her debut album, Lizzobangers, came out in 2013 - but in recent months, the musician has proved unstoppable, moving from achievement to achievement as she breaks out of her US-centric popularity confinement and sets her sights internationally. This isn't to say that the road to this point has been unremarkable - she's worked with Prince (!!), Bastille and Clean Bandit in the past, guest-starred on RuPaul's Drag Race and has generally crushed everything else she's done - but in the next twelve months, she may very well set herself forward as an inescapable act primed for international dominance.

The last three of her singles - Boys, Juice and most recently, Cuz I Love You - are all you need to work this out for yourself. They all glisten with this light-hearted but slick and polished feel in different ways, flipping genres and sounds on their head to create something fun and exciting, and something you can repeat time and time again. Boys, for example, finds the meeting place of nostalgic funk-bounce and one of 2018's strongest pop hooks, marrying her hip-hop roots and an exciting, genreless future. Juice, released last month, was arguably 2019's first 'best song', lifting her comedic, uplifting sound and spotlighting it in a way you haven't quite heard before despite its somewhat familiar comfort - it almost sounds like something you'll hear in a movie, without the corniness. It's retro-funk with a dose of self-acceptance and confidence, delivering stellar one-liners "somebody come get this man, I think he got lost in my DMs" in a way that doesn't feel forced - a hard, hard feat.

Cuz I Love You continues this sensational three-peat of singles. It's triumphant, opening with a blaring brass section that strips away for a moment more intimate and personal, with thick emotion charging what may be Lizzo's most spectacular vocal display yet. It's part-Aretha Franklin, part-Whitney Houston, brought forward to 2019 with guitar-fuelled rock breakdowns and big-band drops that despite being rather grand and over-the-top, doesn't take anything away from Lizzo.

Lizzo has everything that you need to be a star, and then some. She comes with anthems, the ability to twerk and play the flute simultaneously, and gives live performances unmatched - even within the constraints of US late-night TV. There's no-one doing it quite like Lizzo right now, and with her debut album Cuz I Love You out April 19th, you better jump on board before it's too late. Pre-order it HERE.

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