Lizzo Drinks Tequila From Glittering Boot at Live Concert, Latest Celebrity to Partake in Australian ‘Shoey’ Tradition

Melissa Viviane Jefferson, better known by her stage name Lizzo, American rapper and singer seen during a performance on the first day of the Mad Cool 2023 festival, in Villaverde. (Photo : Guillermo Gutierrez/SOPA Image/Sipa USA)

During a live concert in Sydney, Lizzo partook in one of the most timeless and questionable of Australian traditions: the infamous shoey.

For the uninitiated, a “shoey” requires that you pour a drink into your shoe, gulp it and then wear the damp shoe for the rest of the night. In recent years, its become a right of passage for celebrities visiting the Down Under — cheering crowds chant “shoey, shoey, shoey!” while holding up all manner of alcoholic offerings to their favorite star.

This was exactly what happened on Sunday night. As she chatted with fans on stage, Lizzo was handed a wooden stick dangling with an assortment of plush koalas. Attached on top was a partially drunk mini-bottle of Patron.

Understandably, Lizzo had some questions. “My shoe? My shoe is disgusting. I can’t drink out of my fucking shoe, what’s wrong with y’all?”

Amidst deafening applause, Lizzo gave in to tradition and took off one of her sparkling sequined boots. She stuck the tequila stick right in and knocked it back. “A reminder that this is fucked up.”

@bri_jean198

Lizzo does a “shoey” #lizzo #australia #aus #aussie #shoey #shoe #tour #amiready

♬ original sound – Bri Jean

Time and time again, crowds in Australia have found a certain glee in introducing the “shoey” to unsuspecting celebrities.

In February, Harry Styles succumbed to the pressure in front of a clamoring crowd in Perth, Australia. After a moment’s hesitation, he slurped a hefty gulp from his $780 Gucci shoe.

“I feel ashamed of myself. It feels so personal. Such an intimate moment to be shared with so many people,” Styles joked as he put his soggy sneaker back on.

The exact origins of the boozy tradition are unknown. Variously credited to Tasmanian punk circles and surfer crews in the early 2000s, shoey has since become a right of passage for anyone on stage looking to appease the fans.

In 2019, Post Malone chugged a Bud Light from a sneaker that had been thrown to him by a fan on his Australian tour.

Later that week, Kacey Musgraves followed suit and sipped tequila out of a glass slipper on stage in Melbourne. Admittedly, she didn’t look too happy about it. Just days earlier, she had declined a crowd’s loudening shoey chants saying: “I’m not fucking drinking out of your shoe.”

The New York Times even wrote an entire article about the phenomenon back in 2019; Jimmy Fallon, Machine Gun Kelly, Hugh Grant and Luke Bryan have all taken part in the revelry over the years.

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