Lizzo is taking on her first lead role as a music legend.
Deadline reports the 4-time Grammy winner will play rock pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios biopic Rosetta. Tharpe, who died in 1973 at age 58, influenced icons like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Little Richard and is regarded as one of history’s greatest guitarists.
The Arkansas-born musician’s groundbreaking style crossed rhythm and blues, rock ‘n’ roll and gospel. In 2004, her classic “Down by the Riverside” entered the National Recording Registry, and she received a posthumous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2018.
Lizzo announced the news on Instagram Monday (March 24), captioning her post: “Black people made rock n roll.”
While Lizzo has made appearances in the 2019 crime film Hustlers, The Simpsons and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Rosetta will be her first leading movie role. Last week, the “Still Bad” singer tweeted about how Black female artists are mistreated, adding that she’s “out here reclaiming rock n roll for US…”
Following her 2022 fourth album, Special, Lizzo will soon drop her anticipated follow-up Love In Real Life, led by the title track and “Still Bad.”
