Lizzo Delivers TED Talk on the History of Twerking: “My Ass Could Do Magic”

Anyone who follows Lizzo on social media knows she’s an expert on body positivity.

In August, the 33-year-old singer recently delivered a TED Talk to discuss the history of twerking and body positivity.

Lizzo revealed that twerking helped her learn to appreciate her butt.

“I used to hate my ass, believe it or not,” the rapper and singer told the audience. “I have my father’s shape and my mother’s thighs, so it’s big and long. I used to think that only asses like J.Lo’s or Beyoncé’s could be famous. I never thought that could happen to me.”

Lizzo said she researched the origins of twerking in Black Culture after watching people dance at a teen club in Houston years ago.

People were “moving their booty to New Orleans bounce, and I was like, ‘How are they doing that?’ It was incredible to me,” she said. After much practice, she said she discovered, “My ass could do magic.”

In the 13 minutes TED Twerk, Lizzo also explained the history of the dance, tracing its roots back to West African culture.

“Modern-day twerking derived from Black people and Black culture. It has a direct parallel to West African dances like Mapouka,” she detailed. “Black people carried the origins of this dance through our DNA, through our blood, through our bones. We made twerking the global cultural phenomenon it became today.”

“Now, as a big black woman who has ass, who can twerk, who has been doing it her whole life, I kind of think I am an expert on the subject,” she told the audience.

“I want to add to the classical etymology of this dance because it matters. Black people will not be erased from the creation, the history, and the innovation to twerking,” she added.