Lizzo might be going through additional authorized motion on the heels of a lawsuit filed by three tour dancers who claimed in a criticism filed final week in Los Angeles that the “Juice” singer subjected them to sexual harassment and a hostile work setting that included allegations that they have been pressured to the touch nude dancers throughout a dwell intercourse present.
According to a press release from legal professional Ron Zambrano — who’s representing dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez — “we have received at least six inquiries from other people with similar stories since we filed the complaint.”
Zambrano added that, “Noelle, Crystal and Arianna have bravely spoken out and shared their experiences, opening the door for others to feel empowered to do the same. Some of the claims we are reviewing involve allegations of a sexually charged environment and failure to pay employees and may be actionable, but it is too soon to say.”
At press time a spokesperson for Lizzo had not returned a request for touch upon Zambrano’s assertion.
The criticism filed final week on behalf of Davis, Williams and Rodriguez accused Lizzo (born Melissa Jefferson) and her Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. of a variety of authorized wrongdoing, together with racial and non secular discrimination. Among the allegations within the swimsuit have been claims that Lizzo pushed the dancers to attend a intercourse present in Amsterdam’s famed Red Light District and pressured them to have interaction with the performers.
The lawsuit additionally claimed that the captain of Lizzo’s dance staff, Shirlene Quigley, pressured her non secular beliefs on the plaintiffs and took repeated actions that made them uncomfortable, together with commenting about their virginity and simulating oral intercourse on a banana in entrance of them.
In one of the crucial notable allegations, the swimsuit claims that Lizzo, who has made physique positivity a key side of her model, “called attention” to a dancer’s weight acquire after a efficiency on the South by Southwest competition.
Last Thursday, Lizzo issued her solely response to this point to the swimsuit, calling the allegations “false” and “sensationalized stories” in a press release on Twitter. “I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days,” Lizzo wrote. “I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not.”
She stated that the allegations that she and her firm created a hostile work setting that included allegations of spiritual and racial discrimination have been “unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed.”
Lizzo particularly addressed the allegation that she had “called attention” to a dancer’s weight acquire, saying, “There is nothing I take more seriously than the respect we deserve as women in the world. I know what it feels like to be body shamed on a daily basis and would absolutely never criticize or terminate an employee because of their weight.”
Though Lizzo didn’t particularly deal with the person accusations within the swimsuit in her assertion, she known as them “sensationalized stories [that] are coming from former employees who have already publicly admitted that they were told their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional.”
In a response, Zambrano stated Lizzo’s assertion “only adds to our clients’ emotional distress”; at press time the names of the alleged six different folks reportedly contacted Zambrano after the swimsuit was filed had not been launched. Billboard has reached out to one among Lizzo’s legal professionals, Marty Singer, for touch upon Zambrano’s assertion however had not heard again at press time; in line with NBC News, Singer had just lately known as the lawsuit “specious.”
Following the swimsuit and Lizzo’s assertion, filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison — who at one level had been connected to direct the singer’s Love, Lizzo documentary — defined on her socials why she left the undertaking. “In 2019, I traveled a bit with Lizzo to be the director of her documentary. I walked away after about 2 weeks. I was treated with such disrespect by her,” Allison wrote.
“I witnessed how arrogant, self-centered, and unkind she is. I was not protected and was thrown into a sh-tty situation with little support,” she added. Allison additionally stated her intestine advised her to depart the undertaking, and that she is “grateful” that she did, including that she “felt gaslit and was deeply hurt.” At the time Lizzo’s reps had not returned Billboard‘s requests for comment on Allison’s claims.
Earlier this yr, Amazon Studios introduced that auditions had begun for the second season of Watch Out for the Big Grrls, a sequence that chronicled the singer/rapper’s seek for her subsequent crew of “BIG GRRRL” dancers to accompany on her 2022 tour; in line with NBC, among the many six unnamed folks Zambrano has talked to, some stated they labored on the Amazon sequence.
In addition, on Tuesday, the Jay-Z-founded Made In America competition, which was to characteristic headline units from Lizzo and SZA, introduced that it was pulling the plug on this yr’s version on account of “severe circumstances outside of production control.” An announcement from organizers didn’t give particular causes for the cancellation and a spokesperson for promoter Live Nation referred Billboard to the assertion with out providing extra remark. NBC reported that earlier than the swimsuit in opposition to Lizzo was filed, an unnamed supply near the manufacturing stated that ticket gross sales for this yr’s Made in America fest in Philadelphia have been “not good.”
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