Singer Lizzo is known for body positivity, but a new lawsuit claims that what she says about body positivity in public is quite different from how she feels about it when it comes to her performers.
Three of Lizzo’s former dancers have filed a lawsuit against Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Jefferson. Also listed on the lawsuit are Lizzo’s production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc., and the captain of her dance team, Shirlene Quigley. The dancers who filed the lawsuit are Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez. Davis and Williams were fired in 2021, and Rodriquez quit in 2022.
According to the lawsuit, Lizzo badgered Davis about her weight gain. The lawsuit states that Lizzo’s “questions about Ms. Davis’ commitment to the tour were thinly veiled concerns about Ms. Davis’ weight gain, which Lizzo had previously called attention to after noticing it at the South by Southwest music festival.” Davis felt “she needed to explain her weight gain and disclose intimate personal details.”
Meanwhile, the dancers claim that at a club called Bananenbar in Amsterdam Lizzo pressured them to touch and interact with the nude performers when they clearly expressed that they didn’t want to. Davis claims Lizzo “began pressuring” her to touch the breasts of one of the performers even though she expressed “her desire not to touch the performer.”
The lawsuit also accuses Quigley of “oversharing her masturbatory habits and sex life with her husband” and trying to shame anyone who had premarital sex.
The dancers also accuse Lizzo’s production company of racism claiming that they “treated the Black members of the dance team differently than other members.”
Ron Zambrano, who lawyer representing Davis, Williams and Rodriguez, explained in a statement, “The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing.”
Learn more about this new lawsuit against Lizzo in the video below.