Three of the singer’s former dancers, Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez, have alleged that Lizzo fostered a hostile work environment between 2021 and 2023, also including her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc. and choreographer Shirlene Quigley in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs point to an event that took place earlier this year at a club in Amsterdam, which specifies that Lizzo allegedly “began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, grabbing dildos thrown from the performers’ vaginas and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.” Allegedly, Lizzo pressured Davis to touch one of the performers and she refused, but due to the pressure she eventually relented and the group laughed at her. “Plaintiffs were appalled by Lizzo’s lack of respect for the bodily autonomy of her employees and those around her, especially in the presence of many of the people she employed,” the lawsuit said.
In another incident, the singer put her dancers through a 12-hour reaudition after accusing them of drinking before their performances. The process proved grueling and, in an embarrassing situation, Davis didn’t dare ask permission to go to the bathroom for fear of losing her job and ended up soiling her pants. The next day, Williams and Lizzo had a tense meeting after Williams spoke about the incident. Shortly thereafter, Williams was fired, allegedly due to “budget cuts.” Davis was also fired in May 2023 after Lizzo discovered that she had been recording notes of her performances. The dancer explained that this was due to an eye condition that made her disoriented under stress, but the singer made the decision to fire her. In addition, a month before the firings, Lizzo confronted Davis about her “engagement,” which Davis interpreted as a “thinly veiled criticism of her weight.”
In another troubling development, Rodriguez had resigned due to the unfair treatment of her teammates and religious harassment by Quigley, who reportedly “imposed his Christianity on the dancers.” Although it is alleged in the lawsuit that Lizzo may not have been aware of Quigley’s behavior, she did have knowledge of complaints made to management, which were apparently ignored. Rodriguez also spoke about the firings of Williams and Davis, but his concerns were not taken seriously with the response that “we’ve never had a problem with you.”
“The astonishing nature of how Lizzo and his management team treated his performers seems to fly in the face of everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately shaming his dancers and demeaning them in ways that are not only illegal, but absolutely demoralizing,” said Ron Zambrano, the dancers’ attorney, in a statement.
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