Photo: TNS
Singer Lizzo (pic) is accused of having once threatened to hit a former backup dancer who filed a lawsuit against the Grammy winner last week, which alleges misconduct including sexual harassment and weight-shaming.
Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez — who earlier this year stopped working for the Truth Hurts singer within a matter of days of each other — appeared on NewsNation Wednesday to recount her experience.
The alleged incident occurred during an “ambush meeting,” which included Davis’ termination, after Rodriguez expressed frustration over how she and her fellow dancers were being treated.
“[Lizzo] then got upset that I told her I felt disrespected. She balled up her fist at me, and she said, ‘You’re so effing lucky right now, you’re so effing lucky,’ as she was inching her way towards me to hit me,” said Davis. She also claimed Lizzo was held back by another dancer as she yelled “bye B-word” to Rodriguez, flipping off the latter whilst being “dragged out of the room.”
The trio last week filed a lawsuit in which they accused the musician, her dance captain Shirlene Quigley, and her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc., of sexual and religious harassment, as well as weight-shaming and berating the dancers.
Lizzo on Thursday took to Instagram to dismiss what she said were “false allegations” and “sensationalized stories” — which include claims she pressured Davis to touch a topless woman at a strip club in Amsterdam and that Quigley made public the dancer’s virginity, all the while proselytising Christianity to those around her.
A director who briefly worked with the Juice singer also accused her of being “arrogant, self-centered, and unkind.”
“This kind of abuse of power happens far too often,” Sophia Nahli Allison said of the situation that led her to walk away from working with Lizzo after just two weeks.
Her statement preceded the dancers’ lawyers doubling down, noting that, whether “it’s Donald Trump or Lizzo, civil criminal defendants rarely admit responsibility.”
“If Lizzo were to apologise, I would be pleasantly surprised,” Neama Rahmani, who is representing the trio of plaintiffs, told the Daily News. “I would take that to my clients and see what we can do to resolve this, but a public apology would certainly be a good start...”
The fallout of the lawsuit has cost Lizzo more than 154,000 of her followers on Instagram, according to multiple outlets. - New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
