At the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, Lizzo gave a moving speech as she accepted her first-time Emmy award for Prime Video’s “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” which won for outstanding competition program. The singer-actor-producer cried as she made her way to the mic, calling for her “big girl” stars to join her.
“I’m very emotional,” she said. “The trophy is nice, but my emotion is for these people who are on the stage with me … their stories they shared, they’re not that unique, they just don’t get the platform. Telling stories … let’s just tell more stories. When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media … someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me … This is for the big girls.”
Lizzo spoke out for greater representation and acceptance of “fat” people, as she has championed body image issues in her show and her own social media, as well as her full-figured shapewear line, Yitty. Twitter embraced her win, and her, with all the love.
To some, Lizzo’s response recalled Camryn Manheim’s memorable 1998 speech, in which the actress proclaimed, “This is for all the fat girls!” But Lizzo tweeted it best herself: “This is for the BIG GRRRLS.”
Lizzo’s Emotional Emmys Speech Is the Monday Motivation We Needed https://t.co/9H29m4QKz6
— aLianah rose (@alianah_rose) September 13, 2022
This is for the BIG GRRRLS pic.twitter.com/MjxGKcfsGG
— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) September 13, 2022
Lizzo with a speech reminiscent of Camryn Manheim at the 1998 #Emmys where she proclaimed “This is for all the fat girls!!” pic.twitter.com/OCXJukfAgB
— Kyle Dey (@ked_1994) September 13, 2022
Congrats to @lizzo for the big win tonight! You 100% deserved that Emmy & your speech was so precious. #watchoutforthebiggirls pic.twitter.com/F2Dbe6iOJR
— STEPHANIE KRESS (@STEPHANIEKRESS4) September 13, 2022
Me in my living room watching Lizzo deliver this beautiful Emmy speech: #Emmys2022 #emmys pic.twitter.com/JK7si84rcN
— TV, Food, and Books (@tvfoodandbooks) September 13, 2022
Lizzo gets extra points for having to follow SLR’s acceptance speech. High degree of difficulty. #Emmys
— Glen Weldon (@ghweldon) September 13, 2022