A trio of Lizzo’s former dancers are accusing the singer and her touring team of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment, among other allegations.
Three former dancers for Lizzo have hit the singer with a lawsuit claiming they were subjected to sexual harassment and hostile working conditions.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the dancers alleged they were pressured to touch nude dancers at a club in Amsterdam, ridiculed for their weight and forced to participate in “excruciating” re-audition processes. The performers — Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis and Noelle Rodriguez — worked with the “Juice” artist from 2021 to 2023.
Williams and Davis were previous contestants on Lizzo’s reality TV competition show, “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” in which participants competed to join the singer’s touring dance group.
The filing obtained by The Times also lists Lizzo’s production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc., and her dance captain Shirlene Quigley as defendants.
“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,” the dancers’ attorney, Ron Zambrano, said in a statement.
In one instance, the suit accuses Lizzo of commenting on Davis’ weight after a performance at South by Southwest. She alleged that Lizzo and Quigley told her she seemed “less committed” to the job due to her apparent weight gain. The interaction gave Davis the impression that she “needed to explain her weight gain and disclose intimate personal details about her life in order to keep her job.
