has been accused of and creating a hostile work environment in a new lawsuit, it has been claimed.
According to reports, the About Damn Time singer, 35, has been named in legal documents after three former dancers spoke out against her.
In the paperwork, obtained by multiple outlets, they alleged that she pressured one of them to touch a nude performer at a club in Amsterdam, and ‘called attention’ to a performer’s weight gain.
The suit also named her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc, and her dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, as defendants – but not every claim was related to all three.
reports that Arianna Davis and Crystal Williams were hired by the Grammy-winner, real name Melissa Viviane Jefferson, after competing on her reality show, Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, in 2021, but were both fired.
Noella Rodriguez was hired in the same year, but resigned in 2023.
The paperwork alleges Jefferson invited her dancers to a strip club following a performance in Amsterdam earlier this year and – although attendance was not mandatory – those who attended were reportedly ‘favored’ by the musician.
It is claimed that she ‘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’, before she ‘began pressuring Ms Davis to touch the breasts of one of the nude women’.
When she declined, Jefferson allegedly led a chant and goaded her, after which a ‘visibly uncomfortable Ms Davis [engaged] with the performer’.
After this, she allegedly pressed a member of her security team to get on stage, yelling ‘take it off’, according to the outlet.
Jefferson was accused of making comments directed to Davis’ weight following an appearance at SXSW, and told the dancer she seemed ‘less committed’ to her role – an exchange that legal documents reportedly described as a ‘thinly veiled’ mention of her weight.
‘In professional dance, a dancer’s weight gain is often seen as that dancer getting lazy or worse off as a performer,’ the paperwork states, via . ‘Lizzo’s and Ms Scott’s questions about Ms Davis’s commitment to the tour were thinly veiled concerns about Ms Davis’s weight gain, which Lizzo had previously called attention to after noticing it at the South by Southwest music festival.
‘Although Lizzo and Ms Scott never explicitly stated it, these questions accompanied by Lizzo’s statements made after the South by Southwest music festival gave Ms 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.’
It was also alleged that Jefferson had accused dancers of drinking before performances – allegations that Williams vowed were untrue.
reports that she accused them of ‘not performing up to par and repeatedly accused the dancers of drinking alcohol before shows even though the dance cast had never partaken in such a practice’, via the paperwork.
Per the suit, they were forced to go through an ‘excruciating’ audition to keep their spots, with Williams reportedly losing her job in a public manner after, as a result of budget cuts.
Elsewhere in the documents, the Good As Hell star was accused of criticizing Davis for recording a meeting due to a health condition – as she reportedly wanted to have a copy of the performance notes.
When she insisted that she meant no harm with the recording, Lizzo is thought to have responded: ‘There is nothing you can say to make me believe you.’
‘Ms Quigley and Lizzo then took turns berating Ms Davis,’ NBC reports that the paperwork read. ‘After castigating Ms Davis, Lizzo fired Ms Davis on the spot.
Rodriguez reportedly shared her feelings with Jefferson before she left the meeting, explaining that she felt disrespected by the move and declared that she would resign.
According to the lawsuit, the star responded by ‘cracking her knuckles, balling her fists’ and used an expletive to inform Rodriguez that she was ‘lucky’, before yelling a slur and raising both middle fingers as the dancer went to leave.
It is not clear whether Jefferson was aware of any allegations.
The dancers are seeking damages for emotional distress, unpaid wages, loss of earnings and attorney’s fees for the allegations, including sexual, religious and racial harassment, disability discrimination and false imprisonment – but an amount has not been made clear.
Jefferson has yet to speak out over the claims.
Metro.co.uk has contacted reps for Lizzo and Shirlene Quigley for a comment.
