Three of Lizzo’s former dancers filed suit against her, her production company and her dance captain Tuesday in a 37-page complaint that challenges the singer's public image as a beacon of confidence, self-respect and goodness toward all. Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez accuse the defendants of creating a hostile work environment and lodge nine allegations that range from sexual harassment and fat-shaming to verbal abuse.
These allegations would be jarring, no matter who was named as the defendant but — if true — they’re especially disappointing when one considers that Lizzo has crafted a superstar brand around the notion that embracing self-love is the antidote to an onslaught of unrelenting oppression.
These allegations would be jarring, no matter who was named as the defendant but — if true — they’re especially disappointing when one considers that Lizzo has crafted a superstar brand around the notion that embracing self-love is the antidote to an onslaught of unrelenting oppression.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, names Lizzo, whose legal name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc. and her dance captain, Shirlene Quigley. Neither a representative for Lizzo nor Quigley responded to NBC News’ requests for comment, and attempts to reach Lizzo’s production company were not successful. However, Lizzo did release a statement on Instagram on Thursday that read, in part, “Usually I choose not to respond to false allegations but these are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed.”
In denying the allegations entirely, Lizzo wrote, “These sensationalized stories are coming from former employees who have already publicly admitted that they were told that their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional.”
Is it possible to treat people well and still be on top of the world? That’s one question that the lawsuit prompts us to ask and one that I’ve been asking myself. While Lizzo is entitled to have flaws, as we all do, it’s deeply disappointing to learn that she may not be who she has very publicly claimed to be, and that deception may have harmed the people she and her company employed.
Not all nine allegations include all three defendants. For example, some complaints are directed toward Quigley without expressly naming Lizzo. However, Davis and Williams claim Lizzo fired them after falsely accusing them of drinking before shows. “In fact, alcohol was never even allowed in our dressing room or on our rider, which is the food and drinks provided to us. So, it was physically impossible for us to do that,” Davis told CBS News. Davis, who began performing with Lizzo in 2021 after competing on the singer’s Prime Video reality show, “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” also alleges that Lizzo made “thinly veiled concerns about [her] weight gain, which Lizzo had previously called attention to.”
Lizzo, of course, has built an ever-growing empire largely on the idea that we should all be comfortable in who we are, that our bodies aren’t projects in constant need of improvement and that, in order to create the society we desire, we have to leave the door open for those coming behind us. That makes these allegations, if true, all the more alarming — if she knows better and has been on the same journey so many others of us have been on to unlearn such toxic ideas, then that should have led to improved behavior. As the adage goes, when you know better, you do better. Instead, these dancers claim that Lizzo chose to humiliate them time and again, rather than treat them with the kindness she so often sings about.
Davis claims that in May, after Lizzo and Quigley castigated her for recording a previous meeting, Lizzo fired her on the spot. Rodriguez claims she quit on the spot because Lizzo fired Davis. According to the lawsuit, Lizzo then cracked her knuckles and balled her fist, in a way that made Rodriguez believe Lizzo was going to strike her.
That’s not even the worst of the allegations: Davis says Quigley learned that she had never had sex, and then proceeded to routinely mention her virginity to other cast members and even on social media without her permission. Davis also claims that Quigley had a habit of telling dancers on the show “luridly detailed stories about her masturbatory habits and sexual fantasies, occasionally taking breaks to publicly practice her oral sex skills on bananas.”
Davis says Quigley learned that she had never had sex, and then proceeded to routinely mention her virginity to other cast members and even on social media.
And that’s still not the worst of the allegations. After a performance in Amsterdam this year, the lawsuits claims, Lizzo had an afterparty at the strip club Bananenbar, where she allegedly pressured her dancers to touch Bananenbar’s dancers, despite their expressed disinterest in doing so. The lawsuit claims that Lizzo “began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas” and hectored Davis to touch a dancer’s breasts after she repeatedly said she didn’t want to. Davis eventually gave in to the pressure and briefly touched the performer, the lawsuit says. “Plaintiffs were aghast with how little regard Lizzo showed for the bodily autonomy of her employees and those around her, especially in the presence of many people whom she employed,” the lawsuit states.
“I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself,” Lizzo wrote in her statement, “but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not.”
The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages against the three defendants. After Lizzo’s former dancers filed suit, filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison, who says she worked for a short time with Lizzo on a documentary, shared on social media that she walked away from the directing gig after two weeks because she “witnessed how arrogant, self-centered, and unkind” Lizzo is. In a subsequent post on social media, Allison claimed that Lizzo “creates an extremely toxic and hostile working environment and undermines the work, labor and authority of other Black and brown womxn in the process.”
Perhaps more significantly, according to People magazine, at her Tuesday night concert outside Boston, Beyoncé, one of Lizzo’s idols, excluded the singer’s name from the “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix),” which she has performed at each stop of her Renaissance World Tour.
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.
LIZZO
Many of Lizzo’s lyrics have become catchphrases. There’s “I just took a DNA test, turns out / I’m 100% that b----” or the inescapable “I feel good as hell” that at times seems to have cropped up on every commercial and movie trailer over the last two years. She won the Grammy’s 2022 record of the year for “It’s About Damn Time,” an empowering anthem about stepping into your potential, regardless of the naysayers, and being your own biggest advocate.
The body positivity movement helped Lizzo become the world’s foremost fat pop star. She has, or at least had until Tuesday, a built-in army of fans ready to come to her defense at even the slightest sign of fat-shaming or disrespect. But what if the entire time the call was coming from inside the house? What if she, like so many of us, learned to criticize in others what others have criticized in us? The allegations against Lizzo, her dance captain and her production company are just that, allegations. However, it’s important to note that in the society we live in, capitalism requires exploitation. A reliable way for those in our society to accrue wealth is to step on others, whether it’s intentional or unintentional.
We’ve watched Lizzo build her empire, which began in music but now spans brand deals and even a clothing line, but her former dancers’ lawsuit alleges that in expanding her brand, she’s bullied those with less power than she has. That’s a tough pill to swallow. The specific people she’s accused of mistreating also matter. They are plus-size dancers. They are in an industry that typically rewards thinness above everything else. That would make them even more vulnerable to being exploited because, as talented as they are, what other big-name celebrity is likely to put them on stage?
What if her alleged mistreatment pushes these plus-size dancers out of the industry altogether? What if she shattered their confidence?
Even asking those questions feels like a shock to the system. Lizzo is supposed to be the singer who gets it. But instead, we’re back here: interrogating celebrity culture as we must always do. Once again, we’re hearing of allegations that suggest a quest for fame and wealth trumps all — even common human decency — and those who are powerless remain so because celebrities just refuse to be better and do better, even if their music claims otherwise.