Lizzo, Beck announced as SXSW keynotes

The Grammy winners are coming! The Grammy winners are coming! South by Southwest (running March 11-20) just added a slate of extra panels and keynotes to the conference, including two one-namer musical mavericks: Beck and Lizzo. Joining a keynote roster that already includes Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson and Reggie Fils-Aimé, aka the man who turned Nintendo around, the "Truth Hurts" star and triple Grammy winner will be in town just ahead of the premiere on Amazon of her new reality show, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. Lizzo opened auditions for the series via Instagram last year with a cry of "Where are all the big girls?" The show was announced as a "search for dynamic, full-figured women to join her world and perform with her on stage."

Just as recognizable from a single moniker, and just as much of an musical fusion innovator, is fellow keynoter Beck, whose inimitable psycho-soul-folk-funk-electronica fusion has won him eight Grammys and a 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination. But SXSW is not just about music, but all disciplines, including literature and technology. Enter keynote number four Neal Stephenson. The godfather of modern futurism, master of speculative fiction, pioneer of OG cyberpunk in novels like Snow Crash and conspiracy madness in Cryptnomicon, his works have often been an inspiration for many technologists (not always in a fashion of which he would approve), and his dystopian optimism has helped shape the moden world more than many people realize. Fusing politics, filmmaking, and technology, fourth new keynote Celine Tricart is an experienced director and cinematographer who pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved with VR in 2016 with "The Sun Ladies," her 2016 documentary about an all-female combat unit of Yezedi women fighting Daesh. Tricart has called VR "an empathy machine," and she's continued her experimental work with films like "The Key," an animated interactive dream allegory narrated by Alia Shawkat. Announcing this keynote list, SXSW Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest said, “These acclaimed creatives, along with the Featured Speakers revealed today, exemplify why SXSW is an essential destination for global professionals.”