Lizzo is fresh off her major Grammy win for Record of the Year for "About Damn Time" (one of our favorite songs of 2022), but she recently took to Twitter to express her joy about winning an even more significant honor. She now officially has a snowplow in Minnesota named after her. Yep, you read that right!
Every year, Minnesota runs a contest to name new snowplows joining its fleet.
Previous winning monikers have included Scoop Dogg, Betty Whiteout, and the Truck Formerly Known as Plow (a nod to Minnesota's own Prince). Given that Minnesota is a state that takes snow and snowplowing very seriously, the competition to name the eight new plows for 2023 was fierce, with more than 10,000 name choices submitted for consideration. The list was trimmed to 60 finalists for the public to vote on, and Lizzo came out on top, as she should!
Lizzo, who started her musical career in Minnesota, was thrilled by the honor.
Each new snowplow is assigned to a particular region of the state, and Lizzo's namesake plow, "Blizzo," will be working hard in the Twin Cities area, including the streets where Lizzo used to live when she called Minneapolis home for a time after college.
Because she is perfect, she took to Twitter to graciously accept the honor.
"Of all the awards I have received, this by far is the highest honor," she wrote. "To know that there is a snowplow named Blizzo that is clearing the streets of the Twin Cities right now makes my heart melt — or freeze."
She also gave a special shout-out to a group of Minnesota middle schoolers.
The name Blizzo was the genius suggestion of a sixth-grade class from Osseo Middle School (in the suburbs of Minneapolis) and was submitted by their history teacher, Ann Mack, who shared that the students celebrated their winning name with a class doughnut and movie party. (They watched The Mighty Ducks because what could be more on brand for Minnesota than a hockey movie, Lizzo, and snowplows!)
Mack shared that the students hoped Lizzo would recognize their hard work, and Lizzo totally came through. In her video, the pop icon gave special recognition to the kids, saying, "I want to shout out Osseo Middle School. Thank you so much for nominating moi as the recipient of this esteemed honor."
Minnesotans were just as excited as Lizzo about the win.
Since the announcement of Lizzo's triumph, there have been invitations for her to come meet Blizzo, hopes that she might christen the new plow with a bottle of champagne, and plenty of people demonstrating how Lizzo lyrics can become snowplow theme songs, including tweets like, "Why snow pretty til it gotta be pretty?" and multiple references to it being "about damn time" that Lizzo got a plow named in her honor.
Lizzo wasn't the only musical snowplow inspiration, though.
Although Lizzo was one of the top vote getters (and her Blizzo got the prime job of plowing in the Twin Cities), she wasn't the only musical artist to get some love in the contest this year. Minnesota now boasts a "Sleetwood Mac" plow and a "Scoop! There It Is" plow.
No word yet if any of the members of either Fleetwood Mac or '90s hip-hop group Tag Team have responded to their recognitions yet. We suspect Lizzo will be a hard act to follow with her pitch-perfect acceptance speech!
