Eye Candy: Lizzo's "Tempo"

This is Eye Candy: your biweekly update of must-watch music videos. Today, we’re covering the sizzling new video for Lizzo’s hot-girl anthem, “Tempo.”  Hot Girl Summer™ wouldn’t be complete without a new music video from our Lord and Savior, Lizzo. On Friday the 26th, Lizzo dropped a video for “Tempo,” a song from her album Cuz I Love You. Tempo is one of the most fun, sexy, and danceable songs on the album. It’s the perfect party anthem, and the music video is a party to match. Alongside her Hot Girl Summer antics, Lizzo also pays tribute to the “Year of Yeehaw” donning a red cowboy hat with her campy sequin lingerie and blue fur coat. She and her crew dance in front of a old-timey diner — “Lizzo’s” — with a parking lot full of lowriders. Lizzo struts and mugs for the camera, performing like she does best, with unflappable confidence and sexy attitude. A minute and a half in, it’s what we’ve all been waiting for — Missy Elliot jumps out of the trunk of a car to perform her verse. Lizzo has long said in interviews that Missy Elliot is her inspiration and dream collaboration, which makes the moment even more poignant and satisfying. And you don’t get the sense that Elliot is there reluctantly, or that she is doing Lizzo a favor. Decked out in a “Tempo” tracksuit and then a wild pink sweatshirt dress, she grins throughout her whole appearance and looks like she’s having the time of her life. Elliot and Lizzo, a groundbreaking legend and a newly-minted one, have incredible presence and chemistry together. When they’re both on screen, the video overflows with infectious joy, confidence, and power. At the climax of the video, Lizzo and the squad twerk in the middle of the parking lot as girls bounce off the hoods of the lowriders which encircle Lizzo and her main dancers. The scene is surreal, a little tongue-in-cheek, but also captures the mood of the song perfectly. Finally, in the last ten seconds, Lizzo pulls out her iconic flute for the flourishes that end the song. I want it to go on longer — I could live in the world of this video, or even just watch Lizzo twerk-and-flute, forever — but it ends on this high note. “Girl, run that shit back,” says Lizzo, and what else am I gonna do?