After being accused of serious sexual harassment and fat-shaming by former dancers, Lizzo was eliminated from consideration for the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show, leaving her management scrambling in an attempt to “save her sinking ship” of a career.
Three of her former dancers, Crystal Williams, Noelle Rodriguez, and Arianna Davis, filed a lawsuit against the 35-year-old popstar earlier this month, accusing Lizzo of creating a “hostile work environment.” Lizzo has marketed herself as a body-positive activist.
Lizzo was formerly one of the front-runners to perform at the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show, but the organisation has removed her from consideration due to the criticism that has followed the allegations.
In the wake of the allegations, which Lizzo adamantly rejects, a source claimed that “talks of Lizzo being a part of the Halftime festivities, or performing the National Anthem, are dead now that she is surrounded by scandal.”
The 53-year-old musician Jay-Z’s record label, Roc Nation, produces the annual Super Bowl performance. After learning about Lizzo’s legal battle, Jay-Z postponed his forthcoming Made In America event, where she was scheduled to play.
Her management is engaged in a frantic battle to save Lizzo’s career and reputation as she is no longer considered for the lineup for this year’s Super Bowl, which will take place in Las Vegas in February 2024.
Attorneys for three of Lizzo’s former backup dancers who filed a lawsuit alleging weight discrimination and workplace sexual harassment earlier this week disclosed they now have six other people who have filed complaints along similar lines.
Back-up dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez are being represented by attorney Ron Zambrano, whose practise focuses on employment law. He claimed his firm is currently looking into these claims.
The six additional accusers either toured with Lizzo as backup dancers or appeared on her Amazon Studios show, according to Zambrano, who described the charges as being centred around a purported “sexually charged environment” on Lizzo’s tour and refusal to pay employees.
It follows an interview that dancers Davis, Williams, and Rodriguez gave to GMA last week, during which they called the 35-year-old pop star ‘fat-phobic’ and divulged graphic details of their time on tour with their former boss.
“I understand that it is upsetting to learn that Lizzo, a plus-size woman who promotes body positivity, would effectively be fat-phobic. However, I want to make it clear that injured people do hurt people,” Davis remarked.
The Grammy-winning artist, as well as Big Grrrl Big Touring and dance team captain Shirlene Quigley, were accused by Davis, Williams, and Rodriguez of creating a “sexually charged and uncomfortable” work atmosphere in their lawsuit.
The group asserts that Lizzo invited them on a night out that culminated in Amsterdam’s Red Light District while they were on a tour trip with the musician in February 2023.
The dancers added Lizzo allegedly ‘pressured’ and ‘goaded’ Arianna into touching one of the nude performers’ breasts.
The plaintiffs contend that Lizzo invited the dancers to a club in Paris without disclosing that it was a nudist cabaret bar in another occasion. The dancers were’shocked’ by this and said Lizzo ‘robbed them of the choice not to participate,’ according to the lawsuit.
Lizzo has lost more than 120,000 Instagram followers since the lawsuit was filed.
Dancer Courtney Hollinquest and former creative director Quinn Whitney Wilson of Lizzo both asserted they suffered similar maltreatment, in the hours following the announcement of the lawsuit.
