She is a feminist icon and champion of body positivity, with lyrics that encourage self-love and empowerment. Own your curves; dump that man; cash those checks – so go the commandments at the esteemed church of Lizzo, where millions of acolytes worship and find acceptance.
So when news broke this week that the singer and her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, were being sued by three former dancers, her fans were left stunned.
A list of accusations by Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez included sexual, religious and racial harassment, discrimination, false imprisonment, fat-shaming, and creating a hostile work environment. According to the suit, Lizzo allegedly pressured one dancer to touch a nude performer at a club in Amsterdam and subjected several dancers to an “excruciating” 12-hour audition.
Her dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, was also accused of pushing her Christian beliefs on performers and denigrating those who had premarital sex.
“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralising,” the plaintiffs’ lawyer said.
In response, Lizzo – fresh off the back of her globally successful The Special Tour – released a statement calling the claims “sensationalised stories” that were “as unbelievable as they sound”. “I am not here to be looked at as a victim, but I also know that I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be,” the singer said. The last few days, she added, had been “gut wrenchingly difficult and overwhelmingly disappointing”.
Indeed, few accusations could make as much of a dent in Lizzo’s brand as this one. The 35-year-old has made a name for herself as a fun, effervescent performer who encourages kindness and consideration for others. For years, she’s called out bullies and advocated for anyone who’s ever felt discriminated against or ostracised. She’s supported the Black Lives Matter movement and been such a vocal ally to the LGBTQ+ community that her fans call themselves Lizzbians. In concerts, she urges people to repeat a single mantra: “I am beautiful and I can do anything.”
It is this authenticity that has propelled her to stardom. During her performance on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage this year, the crowd belted her anthems back to her with unbridled passion, including lyrics such as: “In case nobody told you today, you’re special”. Lizzo made her fans feel seen and heard, her image gracing magazine covers including Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair marked a new era in the entertainment and fashion industry, where skinny wasn’t always the precursor to success.
But the 44-page lawsuit filed in Los Angeles listed a series of sobering allegations, including Davis’s accusation that Lizzo told her she seemed “less committed” to her role, which she understood as a “thinly veiled” comment about her weight.
Since then, a number of Lizzo’s ex-colleagues, including another former dancer, Courtney Hollinquest, former creative director Quinn Wilson, and the film-maker Sophia Nahli Allison have come forward in support of the lawsuit. On Instagram, Allison – who was hired by Lizzo to direct her 2022 documentary Love, Lizzo – described the singer as “arrogant, self-centred and unkind”. She claimed Lizzo “creates an extremely toxic and hostile working environment and undermines the work, labour and authority of other black and brown women in the process.”
Lizzo’s rise has been meteoric, but she came from humble beginnings. Born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, she was the youngest of three children and grew up first in Detroit and then in the suburbs of Houston, before moving to Minnesota. In Detroit she was surrounded by singers in the church founded by her great-grandparents, where her mother, Shari Johnson-Jefferson, often performed.
Lizzo’s love of music started when she learned to play the flute in fifth grade, encouraged by her father, Michael Jefferson, who wanted her to be a contemporary flautist. With this guidance, she attended the university of Houston on a music scholarship studying classical flute, and was drawn to composers such as Tchaikovsky, Kalinnikov and Shostakovich. But two years into college she dropped out after her father died, saying she felt like she had lost her purpose. She considered studying flute at the Paris Conservatoire before choosing to pursue rap instead – living and sleeping in her car for a year while she made music in a hip hop group and performed local shows.
This period following the death of her father contained “traumatic experiences”, the singer has previously said. She’s also confessed that it took her a decade to learn to love herself, following years of internalising criticisms. “My self-hatred got so bad that I was fantasising about being other people. But you can’t live your life trying to be somebody else,” she said.
Lizzo released two studio albums, Lizzobangers (2013) and Big Grrrl Small World (2015) before signing with Nice Life Recording Company and Atlantic Records. It was with the release of her first major-label EP, Coconut Oil (2016), and her third studio album, Cuz I Love You (2019), that she transformed into a household name.
The accolades flew in after that. Cuz I Love You peaked at No 4 on the US Billboard 100. Her 2017 single Truth Hurts became a sleeper hit two years after its initial release, topping the Billboard 100 and becoming the longest-leading solo song by a female rapper. Other hits included 2016’s Good As Hell and 2021’s Rumours featuring Cardi B. Her 2022 single About Damn Time (from fourth album Special) reached No 1 on the Billboard 100 and made Lizzo the first black female singer since Whitney Houston in 1994 to win the Grammy award for record of the year.
In total, she has four Grammys (at the 2020 ceremony received the most nominations for any artist that year). Other awards include a Billboard music award, a BET award and two Soul Train music awards. In 2019, Time magazine crowned Lizzo entertainer of the year. She’s also ventured into acting, including a supporting role in Hustlers, and hosts the Amazon Prime reality series Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls – a dancing competition that won three Emmys last year.
Lizzo’s net worth stands at $40m and she has 13 million followers on Instagram. “She’s not a walking inspirational infographic,” wrote comedian Samantha Irby in Time. “She knows that part of being enough means acknowledging your imperfections.” But, for the first time, it’s uncertain whether acknowledging imperfections will be enough to save the singer from impending damage.
