Lizzo, Beck and Sara Bareilles Join SXSW Speakers Roster

Lizzo and Beck will give keynote speeches at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin. The Grammy Award-winning artists will help round out the final list of featured speakers for the event running from March 11-20 throughout the Texas capital.

Author Neal Stephenson and director Celine Tricart have also been announced as keynote speakers for the festival. They will join previously announced keynote speakers Alexis McGill Johnson, who serves president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, and president and CEO of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aimé.

SXSW also announced new featured speakers which include Sara Bareilles, Mark Cuban, Chrissy Teigen, Jonathan Van Ness, Rashida Jones, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Phillips, Greg Daniels, BEEPLE and the cast of Amazon series The Boys.

Bareilles will take part in a panel to discuss the return of Peacock comedy Girls5eva alongside her co-stars Goldsberry, Phillips, Paula Pell and screenwriter/showrunner Meredith Scardino.

“The 2022 Conference program is coming together in a spectacular fashion. We could not be more thrilled to announce a Keynote lineup that includes Lizzo, Beck, Neal Stephenson, and Celine Tricart,” said SXSW chief programming officer Hugh Forrest in a release. “These acclaimed creatives, along with the Featured Speakers revealed today, exemplify why SXSW is an essential destination for global professionals.”

This year’s featured sessions will have a range of topics including music, television, film, art, podcasts, public health, technology, NFTs, inclusive workplaces, climate change and the ever-changing digital landscape.

Crypto experts will discuss the next big thing in the digital space on the Move Over NFTs. Here Come the DAOs panel. The discussion will surround DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), the latest crypto concept to seize investor’s imaginations. According to those in the crypto space, DAOs have suddenly rocketed to prominence as investor pools, charitable organizations and community projects embrace them to reduce administrative waste and curb middlemen’s control over resource allocation.

For the What’s Your Life’s Soundtrack? How Music Creates the Score to Our Lives panel, Walk the Moon’s Nicholas Petricca and Alzheimer’s Association president Dr. Joanne Pike will discuss Music Moments, a digital storytelling series featuring moments we never want to lose, signifying to people impacted by Alzheimer’s and all other dementia that they are not alone.

The SXSW Conference is organized into 15 programming tracks presented in a variety of session formats. Check out a full list of speakers, sessions and showcases here. (Billboard‘s parent company, P-MRC, made a 50% investment in SXSW in April.)