Lizzo Explains the Importance of Supporting Planned Parenthood & Why Activism Is Her ‘Calling’: Exclusive Clips
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Lizzo is a Big Grrrl with a big heart. In two exclusive clips shared with Billboard from her interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe airing Wednesday (July 13), the 34-year-old singer-songwriter opened up about how important her philanthropy is to her, whether it’s running her annual Juneteenth “Give Back” program or taking a stand with Planned Parenthood to fight for reproductive rights.
“I’ve never really been somebody who liked just talking about stuff,” she started off. “I’ve always felt like, ‘God, if I’m saying this, I need to do something. If I’m upset and people are in the streets upset, OK, let me go out where the people are.’ I can’t just sit around.”
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The “About Damn Time” vocalist went on to explain that she used to feel helpless when it came to causes she cared about because she didn’t have the financial means or the platform to support them — until now. “It’s almost like I’ve been waiting in the wings and then it was like, ‘Here’s your moment. You have it. You can take action.'”
Much of Lizzo’s activism is aggregated on her website Lizzolovesyou.com, which she started after George Floyd’s death in 2020 as a means of providing information, action items and ways to donate for organizations supporting Black communities. Earlier this year, she added Planned Parenthood to the lineup — a move that became significantly more urgent when the Supreme Court reversed Roe V. Wade just months later on June 24.
“We just wanted to add them because we wanted to,” she said of Planned Parenthood, to which she plans on donating $500,000 of her upcoming Special tour’s proceeds, which Live Nation has agreed to match to make it an even $1 million. “Then when everything happened, when Roe v. Wade got overturned, I quickly had to turn Lizzolovesyou.com into a fundraising for abortion funds and for Planned Parent. It’s very actionary because we were already doing that for Juneteenth.”
Lizzo is mere days away from the release of her second studio album, Special, and just scored six Emmy nominations for her competition series with Amazon’s Prime Video, “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” but as passionate as she is about her career, she says that giving back is her primary purpose in life.
“I just want everyone to know that I’m here because I want to be here,” she told Lowe. “I have not done anything in my career, and I stand by this and I’m proud of it, that I did not want to do. Like nothing’s obligatory. I love touring. I love talking to you. I love writing the music. I love doing interviews where I can talk about the s–t that I made, that I’m proud of.”
“I don’t just make pledges to organizations and donate money to people because of optics or because I feel like I have to — ain’t nobody else doing it,” she continued. “This is why I was put here. This is my calling to do good and you ain’t never going to see me do something I don’t want to do, and you ain’t never going to see me do something just for clout.”
Watch Lizzo talk about her dedication to activism, Planned Parenthood, and more with Zane Lowe in Billboard’s exclusive clips below. Then tune in to Apple Music 1 for Zane Lowe’s interview at 10 a.m. PT.
