Lizzo Is Playing The ‘Godmother Of Rock & Roll’ Sister Rosetta Tharpe In New Biopic

Lizzo‘s list of acting credits is about to get longer. The Grammy-winning rapper and singer is set to play her first leading role in Rosetta, a biopic about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the pioneering musician known as the ‘Godmother of Rock & Roll.’ In addition to starring in the Amazon MGM Studios project, Lizzo is producing alongside Kevin Beisler, Nina Yang Bongiovi, and Forest Whitaker, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed.

A groundbreaking artist who rose to fame as a gospel singer and guitarist in the 1930s, Tharpe famously influenced performers such as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash. She died in 1973 and was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, by Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes. Tharpe is touted on the hall’s website as ‘the first guitar heroine of rock & roll.’

‘By her late teenage years, ‘Sister’ Rosetta — the honorific was from the church — had traveled the length of the country on the ‘gospel highway,’ thrilling the folks who came out to see her at revivals and tent shows,’ scholar Gayle Wald wrote in a tribute essay. ‘She had a clarion soprano and a bright, dimpled smile, and infused her guitar with personality, playing in a manner that emphasized her nimble fingering and steady rhythm. Her charisma on the instrument struck many observers as God-given. They said she played as well as a man – in fact, better than a man. They said she could make the guitar ‘talk’ — or even ‘walk and talk’ — if the spirit was upon her.’

 

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Celebrating the biopic news Monday, Lizzo wrote in an Instagram story that she was ‘so excited & honored.’ She added in a post, ‘Black people made rock n roll yeaaaah.’ The ‘Truth Hurts’ singer’s previous screen credits include the Jennifer Lopez movie Hustlers, an episode of Star Wars series The Mandalorian, voice work on The Simpsons, and other animated shows. Earlier this month, Lizzo performed her first solo concert in two years— a period that saw her embroiled in controversy after her former backup dancers  filed a lawsuit against the singer, her production company, and her dance captain for creating a ‘toxic work environment.’

While onstage, the ‘Truth Hurts’ singer did not directly address the legal battle but did reference the tumultuous period of her career by admitting that she’s spent the past few years in ‘such a dark depression.’

‘I was so heartbroken by the world, and so deeply hurt that I didn’t want to live anymore,’ the singer says in fan-captured footage of the speech. ‘And I was so deeply afraid of people that I didn’t want to be seen. Eventually, I got over that fear, I went to a concert, kind of like this… and as I was walking through the crowds something miraculous happened.’

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