The music world was shaken when Lizzo was accused of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment by three of her ex-dancers, and now more are reportedly coming forward.
The Truth Hurts star, 35, has a public persona which appears to embrace the spirit of the body positivity movement, so her fans were shocked.
Now Ron Zambrano – the lawyer representing the three back-up dancers accusing the singer – says their firm is now vetting new allegations of at least six more people.
These six further claimants say they toured with Lizzo, and include other dancers as well as some who said they worked with the About Damn Time hitmaker on her Amazon Studios reality show, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.
He said the allegations are of a ‘sexually charged environment’ and failing to pay employees.
Lizzo denied the original allegations, but is yet to comment on these fresh ones.
‘Some of the claims we are reviewing may be actionable, but it is too soon to say,’ Zambrano said Tuesday evening, as per NBC.
Arianna Davis, Noelle Rodriguez and Crystal Williams are the original dancers who brought forward the allegations – against Lizzo, her production company, Big Grrrl Gig Touring, Inc (BGBT) and dance captain Shirlene Quigley – which were documented in papers obtained by many US publications.
They claim Lizzo pressured one of them to touch a nude performer in a club, and also allege the singer called attention to a performer’s weight gain, and generally claim there was a toxic work environment.
The three dancers alleged they were subject to sexual, religious, and racial harassment, as well as disability discrimination, assault, and false imprisonment while working for the singer.
Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, denied the ‘sensationalised’ allegations with a lengthy statement that was posted on her Instagram page.
She called the days after the ‘false allegations’ disappointing and ‘gut-wrenchingly difficult’ as she branded them ‘outrageous’.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvevdf9OTse/
Lizzo also claimed she would ‘absolutely never criticise or terminate an employee because of their weight’ and said that while she is ‘not here’ to be looked at as a ‘victim’, she isn’t a ‘villain’ either.
In response, in an interview with Sky News on August 7, the dancers accused the singer of ‘gaslighting’ and ‘victim blaming’.
‘Her statement is just confirming the pattern of any time somebody speaks up or advocates for themselves like we’re doing now, we get victim blamed, we get gaslighted, and she likes to point the finger instead of addressing the issues that are being brought up,’ said Crystal.
Noelle explained her ‘biggest reason’ for going public with the allegations was to ‘give people a voice’ and show it’s possible to stand up to big artists.
They also claimed they tried to ‘settle this in-house’ before coming forward, but to no avail.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Lizzo’s representatives for comment.
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