No one said, 'This is the best female rapper.' It's more like, 'Lizzo can really rap.' I think its because I'm not that sexy girl. I'm that beast girl.

I enjoy female rappers, not because they're female but because I can connect to them more.

When we're on stage doing a song about positive body image or another about female empowerment, everyone out there is super into it and right there with us. It's been awesome. I feel like we fit right in.

My formative years were in Houston. I was in middle school, and everyone was dropping the last half of their names and adding an 'o' to the end. My little crew that I had, we were an all-female rap group, and everyone had an 'o' at the end of their name. I was Lisso. Then this dude started getting lazy with it, saying Lizzo.

When I had money in the past, I would always travel rather than spend it on big apartments or cars. And I still feel exactly the same way.

My dreams of taking the West End by storm as a dancer flickered but then faded; my father’s ambition to see me in a steady office job was tried and abandoned. But I had won a national speaking award, had stood for election to the local council, had begun to travel and took a job working for the Labour Party."

I have no idea what it would be like to be just one thing and speak one language. I feel enormously privileged to travel and be able to mingle and speak to people that, had I only known English, I wouldn't have been able to meet.

I want to send a very strong signal to people who do think about making this journey - we will do everything we can to make sure it is not a success in the sense that I don't want people to think that if they leave a safe country like France that they can get to Britain and just get to stay.