Lizzo is being sued by three former dancers, who’re accusing the singer of sexual harassment and making a hostile working environment. 

The lawsuit, which was filed on August 1 within the Los Angeles Superior Court, was first reported by NBC News, and details an extended list of allegations, including sexual harassment, religious and racial harassment, false imprisonment, accusations of weight-shaming, “interference with prospective economic advantage”, and other accusations.  

The suit is being brought against Lizzo, her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring and her dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, by three former employees, named within the suit as Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez. 

In response to the report, Lizzo – known for her body-positive messaging – drew attention to 1 dancer’s weight gain at South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival. She later fired that dancer after she recorded a gathering due to a health condition. 

The suit also makes reference to a visit to an Amsterdam strip club, Bananenbar, while Lizzo and her team were performing in the town.

The singer is alleged to have invited those together with her “to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.”

“Lizzo then turned her attention to Ms Davis and started pressuring Ms Davis to the touch the breasts of one in every of the nude women,” the suit says. When Davis declined, Lizzo is alleged to have peer-pressured her into it, “demanding a visibly uncomfortable Ms Davis to interact with the performer,” says the lawsuit. At one point, Ms Davis states that she was so fearful she would lose her job even when she went to the lavatory, so she soiled herself. 

Together with this incident are accusations that Lizzo pressured a member of her security staff to strip and that she did not inform staff when she took them to a nude cabaret bar. 

“Plaintiffs were aghast with how little regard Lizzo showed for the bodily autonomy of her employees and people round her,” the suit reads, “especially within the presence of many individuals whom she employed.”

Elsewhere, the suit makes references to alleged comments made by touring company employees who were “charged with racial and fat-phobic animus”. 

There are also allegations of non secular harassment, unfair dismissal and false imprisonment. 

In a press release, Ron Zamrano, the lawyer for Davis, Williams and Rodriquez, said: “The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against the whole lot Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways in which will not be only illegal but absolutely demoralising.”

In response to NBC News, the suit doesn’t set out how much money Lizzo is being sued for. 

Dazed has reached out to representatives for Lizzo with requests for comment. 

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