Two of Lizzo’s former dancers, who are suing the pop sensation for sexual harassment, believe that others are afraid to come up.
Arianna Davis and Crystal Williams stated that they filed the claim in the hopes of preventing their coworkers from suffering.
Ms Williams told CBS that she wants to make sure that future dancers who work with Lizzo don’t have to go through the same ordeal.
Lizzo and the other accused members of her team have been requested to comment.
The artist has yet to publicly comment to the charges presented in the case, which have yet to be proven in court.
The British and Grammy Award-winner is being sued for sexual, religious, and racial harassment, discrimination, assault, and false imprisonment.
Ms Davis and Ms Williams both claimed to have toured with Lizzo – real name Melissa Jefferson – after appearing on her Amazon Prime Show, but said they were later fired.
Ms Davis claims in the lawsuit that she was forced to attend sex shows while on tour in Europe with the artist, despite her religious views.
She also claims that Lizzo organised a night out for the dancers in an Amsterdam strip club earlier this year and that she felt coerced into stroking a naked performer’s breasts since the celebrity was leading chants of her name until she did so.
“I’m so new to this industry,” Ms Davis admitted to CBS. “And the fact that this is my first experience is insane.”
“Nobody speaks up because they’re so scared for their jobs,” she continued, adding, “I was terrified for my job.”
Ms Davis also asserted that Lizzo intimated the dancer had gained weight. According to the legal documents, the questions she was asked “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.”
Ms Davis told CBS, “My dancing ability was the same, my energy was the same.” The only thing that was distinctive about me was my weight.”
Ms Davis said of the alleged weight-related questions, “There was this underlying air of, ‘why are you bigger?'”
The same dancer stated in the legal docs that Lizzo weight shames dancers behind the scenes.
She claimed the singer expressed concerns about her weight gain, and Ms Davis felt she had to disclose intimate details about how anxiety led to binge eating in order to keep her job.
On Tuesday in Los Angeles, the two filed a lawsuit against Lizzo, her production company, and her dance captain Shirlene Quigley for allegedly creating a hostile work environment, which included sexual harassment and fat-shaming. They were joined by a third former dancer, Noelle Rodriguez, who resigned over the alleged treatment of the other two.
The lawsuit also alleges that Lizzo advised the dancers drink alcohol before performances before firing them a few days later.
“That was never the case, in fact, alcohol was never even allowed in our dressing room or on our rider,” Ms Davis told CBS.
Ms Williams continued, “If there’s anything I can do in my power to ensure that dancers, singers, or whoever decides to work with her don’t have to go through that same experience, I’m going to do that.”
