Lizzo Sued by Former Backup Dancers for Sexual Harassment, Hostile Work Setting

Three ladies who used to carry out as backup dancers for Lizzo have filed a wide-ranging lawsuit towards the singer and her touring firm, alleging sexual harassment and hostile work circumstances.

Plaintiffs Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez filed the swimsuit in Los Angeles Tuesday (August 1st). By way of Billboard, it claims that Lizzo (born Melissa Jefferson) had pressured the dancers to attend a intercourse present in Amsterdam’s Pink Mild District and have interaction with the performers in an obscene style.

“Lizzo started inviting forged members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and consuming bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas,” the lawsuit claims. “Lizzo then turned her consideration to Ms. Davis and started pressuring Ms. Davis to the touch the breasts of one of many nude ladies performing on the membership.”

After Lizzo reportedly began a chant for Davis to the touch the performer, Davis ultimately “acquiesced in an try to carry an finish to the chants.”

The swimsuit additionally claims that Lizzo and different staffers implied to Davis that she “wanted to clarify her weight achieve and disclose intimate private particulars about her life as a way to hold her job,” though they “by no means explicitly said it.”

In an announcement to Billboard, the plaintiffs’ lawyer Ron Zambrano stated: “The beautiful nature of how Lizzo and her administration crew handled their performers appears to go towards the whole lot Lizzo stands for publicly, whereas privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in methods that aren’t solely unlawful however completely demoralizing.”

Moreover, the lawsuit cites the captain of Lizzo’s dance crew, alleging that she compelled her non secular beliefs on the plaintiffs and engaged in different conduct made them uncomfortable, together with incendiary feedback about their intercourse lives and simulating oral intercourse on a banana in entrance of them.

UPDATE: Extra of Lizzo’s former dancers took to their Instagram tales to say that the allegations detailed within the lawsuit have been “very a lot [their] expertise.”

Simply weeks in the past, Lizzo took to social media to vent about her personal experiences with fatphobia within the music trade.

Lizzo’s dancer and inventive director
posting this on their ig story 😬 pic.twitter.com/xjyryQpI5C

— I_just_ship_people (@ijustshippeople) August 1, 2023