Three of Lizzo’s former dancers are suing the pop star on grounds that she harassed them sexually and fostered a hostile work environment.
The lawsuit makes claims of racial, religious, and sexual harassment as well as of discrimination, assault, and wrongful detention.
The singer is also charged with forcing a dancer to touch a performer’s breasts and with fat-shaming.
We’ve reached out to Lizzo and the other alleged parties for comment.
The claims in the case have not yet been addressed publicly by the artist; they are still being investigated by the legal system.
The singer, her dance captain, and her production firm Big Grrrl Big Touring (BGBT) are being sued by former dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez.
The lawsuit, which was submitted on Tuesday in Los Angeles, contains claims that the dancers were coerced into participating in sex displays and socializing with them between 2021 and 2023.
Lizzo, whose true name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, is accused of pressuring Ms. Davis to touch a performer’s breasts in an Amsterdam nightclub. Ms. Davis initially refused, but eventually gave in out of concern for her future on the team.
Along with dance choreographer Tanisha Scott, Lizzo—who is known for adoring her body and encouraging self-love—is charged with fat-shaming Ms. Davis while on tour.
Ms Davis alleges the two questioned whether she was “struggling with something as she seemed less committed to her role on the dance cast”, the case details.
“In professional dance, a dancer’s weight gain is often seen as that dancer getting lazy or worse off as a performer. Lizzo’s and Ms. Scott’s questions about Ms. Davis’s commitment to the tour were thinly veiled concerns about Ms Davis’s weight gain,” the documents allege.
Though never explicitly stated, the questions “gave Ms Davis the impression that she needed to explain her weight gain and disclose intimate personal details about her life in order to keep her job”, the legal documents say.
Without going into detail, the case claims that BGBT employees reprimanded dancers for “unacceptable and disrespectful” behavior while they were on the tour.
The dancers claim that only the dancing cast, which was made up of full-figured women of color, was ever talked to in this way, giving them the sense that the remarks were motivated by prejudice towards them because of their race and body size.
Shirlene Quigley, the leader of the dancing team, is accused of pushing her Christian ideals on participants and mocking those who indulged in premarital sex.
She is also charged with publicly discussing and sharing on social media the virginity of one of the former dancers.
The executive team of BGBT is also accused of prejudice, particularly racial discrimination.
It claims that the dance team’s black members were “treated differently” from the others.
They were accused of being “lazy, unprofessional, and having bad attitudes”; the case said that these stereotypes are frequently employed “to disparage and discourage” black women; other dancers were not treated in this manner.
The BBC has reached out to Quigley and Scott for comments.
Additionally, the plaintiffs claim that while they were working on some of Lizzo’s European tour, she and the production firm team did not pay them adequately.
They claim that when they weren’t on the tour, they were only given a retainer of 25% of their weekly salary. Additionally, they contend that Lizzo and the business preferred they refrain from taking on additional work during these pauses.
The legal action claims that Ms. Davis and Ms. Williams, two of the three dancers named in the lawsuit, first encountered Lizzo in March 2021 while training for Lizzo’s reality competition show Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.
Ms. Rodriguez, the third, was chosen to appear in Lizzo’s Rumours music video and was hired later in May 2021. She afterwards stayed with the dance group, it continues.
The dance team fired Ms. Davis and Ms. Williams, and Ms. Rodriguez later resigned over the alleged mistreatment of her fellow team members.
Truth Hurts, About Damn Time, Juice, Good As Hell, and 2 Be Loved are among Lizzo’s best-known songs.
