Lizzo recently showed that she is a beacon of self-confidence in a world that needs it. She gave a flutastic performance on the 200-year-old crystal flute of a former US president — to the delight of fans, despite some commentators attempting to start controversy. The accomplished flutist and singer of “Truth Hurts” played the elegant reed during a recent tour stop in Washington, DC. James Madison received the instrument as a gift from French flute maker Claude Laurent in 1813. For decades, the Library of Congress had kept the flute in its vaults before allowing Lizzo to play it live.
While performing in Washington, Lizzo asked the Library to let her play the famous flute, reported CNN. However, Capitol Police and other security staff members were on hand to ensure the woodwind’s safety. In addition to playing the flute during her concerts, the Emmy winner also experimented with an 18-karat gold flute, but Sasha Flute remains one of her favorites. In video from concertgoers, Lizzo is seen handling the flute carefully and enthusiastically. She briefly explained the flute’s history and stated she was “the first person to ever play it.”
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“B—, I’m scared,” she said to laughter from the audience. “It’s crystal. It’s like playing out of a wine glass, b—, so be patient.” After blowing a few soft notes on the crystal flute, Lizzo gingerly twerked while playing. Several seconds later, she held the flute high in the air, triumphant, then carefully returned it to the waiting staff. “B—, I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s,” she said. “We just made history tonight!” After thanking the Library for “preserving our history,” Lizzo reminded her fans, “history is freaking cool.”
The Library of Congress also invited Lizzo to visit its collection of 1,700 flutes earlier this week, the largest in the world. The Library said she “serenaded employees and a few researchers” with a “more practical” woodwind first. Following the initial fierce reactions focused on Lizzo and her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Esquire reported on another flute aficionado who griped in a now-deleted tweet that “more classically trained and world-renowned flutists” did not get the chance to play the instrument.
Other contrarians turned their attention to Lizzo’s…dancing. “If all we had seen was the clip of Lizzo playing the flute in the halls of the Library of Congress while wearing a semi-modest outfit, everyone would have shrugged,” conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted. “But that’s not the clip everyone championed as groundbreaking: it was the clip where she bragged about twerking.”
However, many users’ responses to Shapiro were — so what? “This is what they are upset about?!” one person replied. “She wiggled a little bit while she played And apparently the Library of Congress didn’t mind at all. I’m sure they are thrilled at the shout out!” Another suggested Shapiro was overreacting, tweeting, “I have always wanted to ratio Ben Shapiro for being a complete dweeb.” One user simply retweeted Lizzo’s video of the event, writing above it, “Are you so bereft of hearing beautiful sounds and not being moved by them? How hollow do you have to be to criticized this?”
