The singer is being honored by the Black Music Action Coalition on Thursday (Sept. 21).
Lizzo has been hit with another lawsuit from a former employee on the same day she’s set to receive the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award from the Black Music Action Coalition.
Asha Daniels, her former tour wardrobe designer, filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday (Sept. 21) against Lizzo — née Melissa Jefferson — her production company Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc. (BGBT), her wardrobe manager, Amanda Nomura, and tour manager, Carlina Gugliotta.
Daniels has accused the Special singer of racial and sexual harassment, disability discrimination, illegal retaliatory termination and assault among other things.
“The timing of this award’s announcement stinks of an architected PR stunt by Lizzo’s team aimed at trying to repair the damage done to her brand,” said Ron Zambrano, her attorney and a partner and Employment Litigation Chair at West Coast Employment Lawyers. Zambrano is also representing the three dancers who filed their lawsuit back in August.
He continued, “With Lizzo’s attack on the other plaintiffs, we’ve heard from more than two dozen former Lizzo employees sharing similar stories of abuse and harassment who could be potential new plaintiffs. This is not going away… She has created a sexualized and racially charged environment on her tours that her management staff sees as condoning such behavior, and so it continues unchecked. Lizzo certainly knows what’s going on but chooses not to put an end to this disgusting and illegal conduct and participates herself.”
Daniels designed the wardrobe for Lizzo’s 2023 Special Tour, and began working for the singer in January.
She detailed in the complaint how she expected a “healthy, diverse environment with virtues of respect and empowerment of women [but] unfortunately, the opposite turned out to be true.” Daniels “believes the following experiences of degradation, forced physical labor, denial of medical care, sexual harassment, and racial harassment were allowed to take place by Lizzo’s management without consequence because she is a Black woman.”
She explained that Nomura would “mock both Lizzo and Lizzo’s background dancers on multiple occasions [as well as] would imitate the dancers and Lizzo by doing an offensive stereotypical impression of a Black woman. Nomura would also refer to Black women on the tour as ‘dumb,’ ‘useless,’ and ‘fat.’”
Daniels revealed that “Nomura expressed that she would ‘kill a b***h if it came down to it’ if anyone threatened her job.” Additionally, she claimed to have witnessed “Nomura, the crew, and Lizzo’s management team openly discussing hiring sex workers for lewd acts while on tour in Amsterdam, attending sex shows and buying hard drugs.”
The complaint goes on to list how Daniels was denied breaks after working 20-hour days for seven days straight, suffered from sexual harassment at the hands of Lizzo’s management, and was even encouraged to refrain from dressing attractively in front of Lizzo, due to jealousy concerns regarding her and her boyfriend, Myke Wright (above).
After airing her grievances to Gugliotta, nothing was done and eventually, Daniels was abruptly fired. She now suffers from anxiety and panic attacks, as well as PTSD, and “migraine-induced eye twitch and ocular distortions, brain fog, and fatigue.”‘
Lizzo has not addressed the new lawsuit, but described the first set of allegations as “sensationalized stories.” Read the full complaint below.
