Lizzo #

Introduction #

Lizzo, the Grammy-winning singer, faced backlash in August 2023 when three of her former tour dancers sued her, alleging sexual harassment, weight-shaming, and a hostile work environment. Lizzo denied the allegations, which also named her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc., and her dance captain, Shirlene Quigley.

Background Information #

Lizzo was born Melissa Viviane Jefferson on April 27, 1988, in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Houston, Texas, at age ten. After college she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, launching her hip-hop recording career with the albums Lizzobangers (2013) and Big Grrrl Small World (2015). Signed to Atlantic Records in 2016, she broke through with her third album, Cuz I Love You (2019), which peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 and won three Grammy Awards; “Truth Hurts” topped the Billboard Hot 100.

Her fourth album, Special (2022), was led by the US number-one single “About Damn Time,” which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in February 2023. Lizzo also appeared in the films UglyDolls (2019) and Hustlers (2019) and hosted the Amazon reality series Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, winning a Primetime Emmy Award. Time named her “Entertainer of the Year” in 2019, and she became a body-positivity advocate whose backup troupe, the Big Grrrls, consisted of all plus-size dancers.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

On August 1, 2023, three of Lizzo’s former tour dancers — Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez — filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles, first reported by NBC News, alleging that Lizzo created a hostile work environment through sexual, racial, and religious harassment in incidents between 2021 and 2023. The suit named Lizzo, her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc., and dance captain Shirlene Quigley as defendants, with claims including sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, false imprisonment, and interference with prospective economic advantage. The dancers also alleged that Lizzo criticized a dancer’s recent weight gain and later berated, then fired, that dancer for recording a meeting.

The suit claimed that at an Amsterdam club earlier in 2023, Lizzo allegedly “began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.” Lizzo allegedly pressured Davis to touch the nude breasts of one performer and goaded her on when she refused; when Davis eventually acquiesced, the group burst into laughter. She then allegedly pressured a member of her security staff to get on stage and yelled “Take it off!” The suit said the plaintiffs were “aghast with how little regard Lizzo showed for the bodily autonomy of her employees.” It also alleged that after falsely accusing dancers of drinking while working, Lizzo put several of them through an “excruciating” 12-hour audition in which Davis soiled her pants rather than risk losing her job by using the bathroom. Davis also claimed she was fired on the spot the following month when the singer learned she had recorded performance notes.

The lawsuit also detailed allegations against Shirlene Quigley, who allegedly pushed her Christian beliefs onto dancers, denigrated those who had premarital sex, discussed one performer’s virginity, and pressured dancers into group Christian prayer. Davis and Williams, both alumni of Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, were fired from the troupe, while Rodriguez said she resigned over how poorly her colleagues were treated. Their attorney, Ron Zambrano, said 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.”

Public Reaction and Consequences #

Lizzo denied the allegations in an Instagram post, calling them “unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed,” and hired Hollywood lawyer Marty Singer, who has previously worked with Jonah Hill, Kim Kardashian, and Chris Brown. By August 9, at least six more former employees had filed similar complaints, according to Vox.

The case drew scrutiny because the allegations appeared to contradict the image Lizzo had cultivated as a champion of plus-size women and women of color through ventures such as her size-inclusive shapewear line Yitty and her reality show spotlighting plus-size dancers. Beyoncé declined to mention Lizzo’s name while singing a song that references her at a concert, and some fans said lyrics in Lizzo’s song “Rumors” — which mention lawsuits and nondisclosure agreements — took on a new tenor after the filing. Legal experts told Vox the sexual harassment charge was likely the strongest claim, with employment law professor Nicole Porter saying, “I think it’s likely that a reasonable person would think that behavior created a hostile work environment.” The case also renewed discussion about star accountability and the lack of oversight for artists in the music industry.

Current Status #

Lizzo has continued to deny the allegations. In February 2024, a Los Angeles judge rejected her request to end the dancers’ case, dismissing some claims — including an alleged fat-shaming incident and an allegation of disability discrimination — while upholding some sexual harassment and racial and religious discrimination allegations against Lizzo and Quigley. A second lawsuit followed in September 2023 from clothing designer Asha Daniels, who had worked on the Special tour, alleging further inappropriate backstage behavior; Lizzo’s spokesperson called it an “absurd publicity-stunt lawsuit,” and in December 2024 a judge dismissed the causes of action against Lizzo and her tour manager as individuals while leaving Big Grrrl Big Touring as a defendant. Lizzo, meanwhile, spent most of 2023 on tour across North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The lawsuit set one of the most direct public confrontations between a major pop star’s empowering persona and the workplace conduct her employees alleged, underscoring, as Vox noted, the poor working conditions and lack of accountability common in the music industry. The allegations did not derail Lizzo’s 2023 touring schedule, but they shadowed her: a judge allowed some harassment claims to proceed in 2024, and Beyoncé conspicuously omitted her name from a song that references her. She continued her recording career, releasing the mixtape My Face Hurts from Smiling in 2025 and the album Bitch in 2026, while maintaining that the allegations against her were “unbelievable” and “too outrageous not to be addressed.”