When I first heard the disturbing allegations about Lizzo — three of her former tour dancers filed a shocking lawsuit accusing the “About Damn Time”
Singer — I found the news difficult to believe. Since
BREAKING out big in 2019 with hits such as “Truth Hurts” and “Juice,” the four-time Grammy winner has been all about making us feel good as hell about ourselves. The flautist-turned-pop idol has been the pied piper of self-love and, in particular, body positivity — an artist with a plus-sized heart. Now, Lizzo, her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. and her dance captain Shirlene Quigley have been accused of fat-shaming and pressuring dancers to partake in sex shows and sexually denigrating acts. While Lizzo denied the allegations in an
Instagram post on Thursday morning, it’s hard to see her making a full recovery here. First, more and more
Women are coming out in support of the dancers who filed suit. Oscar-nominated director Sophia Nahlia Allison took to
Social Media to reveal that she walked away from a Lizzo documentary in 2019 because “I was treated with such disrespect by her. I witnessed how arrogant and unkind she is.” Allison then doubled-down with a second Instagram story standing with the dancers, saying “[Lizzo] is a narcissistic bully and has built her brand off of lies,” she wrote. Lizzo’s former creative director, Quinn Whitney Wilson, also backed up the dancers’ claims. “Big shoutout to the dancers who had the courage to bring this to light,” she wrote on her Instagram story. Even worse, on Tuesday at her Boston show,
Beyoncé failed to give Lizzo her usual shout-out . The move smacked of a major fallout, though Bey’s mom, Tina Knowles, quickly denied that it was a slight . A different kind of pop star might recover from this, but Lizzo, Inc. has been built on female empowerment and good vibes. The claim about body-shaming one of the dancers over weight gain is particularly troubling for a woman who had an Emmy-winning reality show, “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” about auditioning and empowering her plus-sized steppers. The public can often forgive certain behaviors if a diva is being, well, a diva. Just last week, social media ate it up when Beyoncé gave her production crew the side eye after some poor soul failed to turn the fan on during a
Chicago show on her “Renaissance” World Tour . “Somebody’s getting fired” was the joke. And
Madonna put her divatude on full display for the whole world to see in her groundbreaking documentary “Truth or Dare” in 1991. Admittedly, 32 years later, some of her behavior — as delicious as it was to watch when you didn’t have to suffer from it — might be considered bullying today, but she was only celebrated for giving you a real peek behind the curtain. Lizzo, however, is more likely to suffer a fate similar to
Ellen DeGeneres. She built her reputation as the
Queen of Nice, and when allegations surfaced that she was actually a terror behind the scenes, it was a fatal, toxic blow. Her show went off the air last year — and the fallout from that seemingly contributed to her decision to pull the plug. While Lizzo should be given the benefit of the doubt — and some grace — until any allegations are proven, even the suggestion that she might have been lying to us all this time is disheartening. No one likes to feel as if they’ve been duped. When your brand is built on being your most authentic self, fakeness hurts.