| CROSSFADE | ▼ Music Call Him by His Name Lil Nas X will bring his Long Live Montero Tour to the James L. Knight Center. BY JOSE D. DURAN Something Special Lizzo kicks off the Special Tour in South Florida this fall. BY JOSE D. DURAN I t’s been a minute since Lizzo last put out an album. But the wait will finally be over when the Grammy winner drops Special, her fourth studio LP, on July 15. And in true pop-star fashion, Lizzo will take her new songs on the road this fall when she embarks on the Special Tour, a 25-city circuit that opens right here in South Florida, at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise on September 23. Lizzo is no stranger to the South Florida stage. She’s performed twice at the Fillmore Miami Beach: first, when she brought her Cuz I Love You Tour in 2019 and a few months later as part of the SiriusXM Pandora Super Bowl Opening Drive concert series in early 2020. More recently, she visited last December dur- ing Miami Art Week, for American Express’ Un- staged series at the Miami Beach Edition. FLA Live Arena will be the largest South Florida venue where she has performed to date. That’s not surprising, considering her profile has only continued to rise since she pro- claimed that “I just took a DNA test/Turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch.” Photo by Charlotte Rutherford M any people claim that the era of the “shock rocker” has long been dead, but that’s not en- tirely true. While shock rock used to rely on heavy metal or hard rock and theatrics laced with images of the occult and Satanism, these days it’s pop music and queer culture that’s causing white Middle America to clutch its pearls. One only needs to look at Lil Nas X, the reigning master of pissing off parents, politi- cians, and pundits. Get ready to hide your children, because the “Industry Baby” singer has announced he’s finally embarking on his first-ever tour. With the Long Live Montero Tour, Lil Nas X will piss off conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean when he tours North America and Europe, starting in September. He’ll make his way down to Miami on Tuesday, Oc- tober 4, with a stop at the James L. Knight Center downtown. Lil Nas X first rose to prominence after he independently released “Old Town Road” in 2018. The song was undeniably catchy, and the internet noticed and turned it into a meme. Then in early 2019, as the track’s popularity soared, Lil Nas X got country singer Billy Ray Cyrus on the remix for the track — and the song leapt from the internet to mainstream consciousness. (Fun fact: “Old Town Road” samples Nine Inch Nails’ “34 Ghosts IV.”) Lil Nas X was already proving controver- 16 16 sial, even with a seemingly innocent song. In addition to charting on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, “Old Town Road” charted on Hot Country Songs before being quietly removed. Billboard argued that it didn’t contain enough country elements to qualify, but critics saw it as another example Lil Nas X of Black musicians being pushed out of the country music industry. Also in 2019, as “Old Town Road” rode high LIL NAS X IS THE REIGNING MASTER OF PISSING OFF PARENTS, POLITICIANS, AND PUNDITS. atop the charts, Lil Nas X came out as gay. At first he was unsure whether his fans would stick by him, but afterward he seemed to lean more into his queerness. At the same time, “Old Town Road” was being written off as a novelty song, all but guaranteeing that Lil Nas X would be just an- other one-hit-wonder. Then Montero happened. Lil Nas X’s debut album served as a reintroduction and rebranding of sorts. He transformed himself from a rhine- stone cowboy into an unabashedly Black queer artist. The video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” had conservatives in a tizzy thanks to its gay imagery, which included a pole dance into the depths of Hell, finishing with the artist giving Satan a lap dance. The subsequent single, “Industry Baby,” featuring Jack Harlow, maintained the mo- mentum with an accompanying music video that sported nonstop homoerotic scenes in- side a prison. Both tracks topped the Bill- board Hot 100. So if anyone deserves to say “Fuck the hat- ers!” it’s Lil Nas X. Lil Nas X. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 4, at James L. Knight Center, 400 SE Second Ave., Miami; 305-416-5978; jlkc.com. Tickets cost $28.95 to $52.95 via ticketmaster.com. [email protected] Photo by AB+DM During the pandemic, her stature on social media only seemed to grow. She quickly be- came one of the most prominent personalities on TikTok, where she has amassed more than 21 million followers. And last summer, her comeback single, “Rumors,” featuring Cardi B, reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Last month, she hosted Saturday Night Live, where she was also the night’s musical guest. She performed two new songs during the broadcast, “Special” and “About Damn Time.” The latter serves as the first single off her up- coming album. The song is classic Lizzo, with a mixture of disco and funk serving as the back- drop for her feel-good lyrics. “It’s bad bitch o’clock, yeah, it’s thick-thirty/I’ve been through a lot, but I’m still flirty,” she sings in the first verse. If that wasn’t enough, Lizzo is also hosting a reality competition show on Amazon Prime Video, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, in which she looks for talented dancers to join her on her upcoming tour. (Seriously, where does she find the time?) Lizzo. 8 p.m. Friday, September 23, at FLA Live Arena, 1 Panther Pkwy., Sunrise; 954-835- 8000; flalivearena.com. Tickets cost $55.25 to $195.25 via ticketmaster.com. MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 MAY 12-18, 2022 NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com miaminewtimes.com
