Since releasing her fifth album in early June, the pop star Lizzo has been on one thing of a tear.
After reaching eye-watering success with hits like “Truth Hurts” and “About Damn Time,” the four-time Grammy winner’s newest effort has dropped with a thud, reportedly streaming below one million instances on Spotify throughout the first 24 hours of its launch, selling fewer than 3,000 copies in its first week in response to Rolling Stone and failing to crack the Billboard 200 within the first two weeks.
Once ubiquitous within the tradition — as a lot for her full-on embrace of self-love and physique positivity as for her infectious anthems — Lizzo is now relegated to “what happened to her?” standing.
On social media, the 38-year-old pop star has provided her personal theories as to why her album, the provocatively titled “Bitch,” is failing to interrupt by way of, whereas additionally showing to push again on haters. “The algorithm-based way that social media functions now is destroying the music industry,” she mentioned in a TikTok posted on May 12, addressing why some might not have even been conscious she was dropping a brand new album simply weeks later. “If your algorithm is super serving you things out of order of when they’re happening, then the general public has no idea when music is actually coming out.”
Why three former Lizzo dancers are suing the pop star
But a number of different folks have ideas, too.
“It was never our intention to take down a woman of color,” mentioned Noelle Rodriguez, one among three dancers who filed suit towards Lizzo in 2023, a second that severely challenged the singer’s public picture. “It was never an intention to take down a plus size woman of color specifically.”
Rodriguez and her co-claimants — Arianna Davis and Crystal Williams — levied accusations of sexual harassment, physique shaming and a hostile office towards Lizzo, in addition to her manufacturing firm Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc. (BGBT) and an individual described as “dance cast captain.”
The three ladies haven’t spoken about their go well with towards Lizzo past interviews when it was initially filed in August 2023 and got here collectively just lately to speak solely with NCS.
They are watching this second with blended feelings. On one hand, they really feel disenchanted and traumatized following what they allege occurred after they had been employed for a job they felt was vital, notably as ladies with greater our bodies. On the opposite, they are saying they’re decided to see the case by way of.
Their intention, they insist, was to not damage their former boss, however moderately to carry her accountable for the values she has publicly portrayed herself as holding.
“I don’t really think it’s our place to discuss or even have an opinion on how her career is going at this point, when that wasn’t even our reason for filing in the first place,” Rodriguez mentioned. “It was never a smear campaign. It was never to take somebody down. I think if anything, in retrospect, I’ve actually had some sadness in the fact that it has impacted her career.”
Lizzo’s legal professional Melissa Glass mentioned in a press release that the claims made within the go well with “have no basis in reality.”
“Not a single witness has come forward to support their allegations,” the assertion learn. “In fact, their claims were refuted by 18 witnesses, including most of the other dancers on ‘The Special Tour.’” Glass added, “we are confident that Lizzo will prevail in the case.”
Lizzo has different defenders.
Chawnta’ Van, who first danced with Lizzo in 2019 and labored with the three ladies who filed the lawsuit, mentioned she felt “blindsided” and “heartbroken” by the allegations as she thought everybody on the tour “were all in this together, but apparently not.”
After the go well with was filed, Van mentioned plans for all future performances with Lizzo floor to a halt.
“As a dancer, we’re the lowest paid. We work gig by gig, literally,” mentioned Van, who was linked to NCS by way of Lizzo’s attorneys. “So when all this stuff came out and everything got canceled, it was really hard.”
When Lizzo burst on the scene in 2019, it appeared to herald, or not less than symbolize, a brand new second. Here was this drive of musical prowess and private charisma, dwelling unapologetically as herself — and being celebrated for it. As a plus-sized Black lady, she impressed tens of millions — and likewise noticed her physique unfairly used to litigate the problems of the day. She confronted monumental scrutiny — and fought again in form, like when she didn’t take criticism about her backside-bearing outfit inflicting a stir at a Laker sport in 2019.
“It doesn’t really matter what goes on on the internet, nothing really breaks my joy,” she said at the time. “I’m a really solid, grounded person, and I know that I’m shocking because you’ve never seen — in a long time — a body like mine doing whatever it wants to do and dressing the way that it dresses and moving the way that it moves.”
The claims within the lawsuit — which included allegations that the dancers felt pressured in going to nude reveals and interacting with performers— stand at odds with Lizzo’s public picture and message. “I feel like her whole brand, aside from body positivity, was positivity in general — uplifting women, especially uplifting women of color and just, you know, being kind to one another, being kind to yourself,” Williams mentioned in an interview. “Her entire message and platform and her brand was the entire opposite whenever doors were closed, whenever we were in private meetings.”
Lizzo has denied the accusations. Shortly after the go well with was filed, she posted a press release on social media calling the allegations “false” and “as unbelievable as they sound.”
“I know what it feels like to be body shamed on a daily basis and would absolutely never criticize or terminate an employee because of their weight,” Lizzo wrote.
In the three years because it’s been filed, the lawsuit has been inching alongside, with either side buying and selling briefs and appeals, Ron Zambrano, a lawyer for the three ladies, mentioned in an interview. Last 12 months, a decide threw out the accusations of physique shaming following a movement from Lizzo’s group that argued that occasions just like the nude present outings had been protected free speech as a part of the inventive course of. Zambrano and his shoppers are at the moment ready for a date from the California Court of Appeal to listen to oral arguments.
Speaking to the “Today” present, Lizzo mentioned she declined to settle the go well with as a result of “I’m a woman who is not afraid of the truth coming out, so I’m continuing to fight.”
Many followers had been shocked by the lawsuit and within the aftermath, the singer took breaks from social media. When she re-emerged in 2024, she was slimmer however nonetheless joyful to point out off her physique, first in a sheer Jean Paul Gaultier black-and-white dress and in a while social media.
The similar 12 months, Lizzo said in a social media video that she was not vegan, having found that including issues like egg white cups and grilled rooster helped her really feel higher and obtain her weight reduction targets. She went on to record a version of the “Baby Back Ribs” jingle for Chili’s, showing in an advert enjoying a rib-shaped flute.
The turnaround has been placing. In a 2025 essay on Substack, Lizzo wrote that she started dropping pounds in 2023 after she grew to become the “subject of a vicious scandal” that left her feeling depressed. “I needed a way to process my pain through my body, so I started with Pilates,” she wrote.
“I was sick and tired of my identity being overshadowed by my fatness. People could not see my talent as a musician because they were too busy accusing me of making ‘being fat’ my whole personality,” she wrote. “I know that my story isn’t unique. I know that women in bigger bodies, especially black women in bigger bodies, have had this working against them since forever.”
During a current look on the podcast “In Your Dreams With Owen Thiele,” Lizzo took exception to celebs she felt had gotten too skinny, which struck some as a “weight loss for me, but not for thee” second from a lady who has lengthy complained about others commenting on her physique.
“I don’t have criticism for the artists or these people who are losing all this weight as much as I have criticism for the system convincing them that their bodies aren’t good enough,” she mentioned.
To the ladies who’re suing her, the seemingly defiant lady who generally says and does issues that appear to contradict her public persona is the individual they got here to know.
“It wasn’t the weight loss that’s kind of made her abandon her fans. She kind of abandoned them from the beginning,” Williams mentioned. “You are starting to see it a little bit more, but this is who she’s been since day one, sadly. So I don’t think this is something new. This is her genuine character at the core and at the heart.”
Lizzo responds to backlash over smoothie detox
“What’s complicated about Lizzo is Lizzo did make her body size part of her brand,” mentioned Tigress Osborn, govt director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA). There’s additionally the truth that Lizzo is a Black lady, the activist mentioned.
“What Lizzo got was the magical Black friend dynamic,” Osborn mentioned. “That Hollywood trope about like the magical Black friend who’s going make your life bigger by inspiring you and helping you.”
Now not solely does Lizzo have an allegation of fats shaming lingering from her previous, however she herself is not as deeply relatable to the plus-sized group along with her physique transformation.
“If you want your fans to relate to you as a person, then you have to be a person, not a brand,” mentioned Osborn, who is evident that folks have a proper to be no matter measurement they need. “If you want your fans to relate to you as a brand, then brand loyalty ends when the brand changes.”
Having labored with Lizzo since 2020, keyboard participant Lynette Williams insisted the burden loss occurred as a result of the singer “just wants to be healthier.”
Lynette Williams, who’s herself plus measurement and was additionally referred to NCS by Lizzo’s legal professional, added: “It’s not about trying to conform to what society thinks.”
She additionally thinks the go well with performed a bigger issue within the low gross sales for Lizzo’s newest effort. Of the music itself on the album, she mentioned, “I think it’s fire.”
Watching Lizzo’s re-emergence has been harrowing for the three plaintiffs. They say they haven’t chosen to hearken to her music.
The three dancers had been overjoyed after they joined Lizzo’s troupe, excited to point out that “big girls” had the strikes to match their curves.
Davis mentioned dancing for Lizzo — her “first professional dance job out the gate” — was her “dream job.”
“I was like, this is amazing,” Davis mentioned. “And then to have the actions play out the way they did was really devastating.”
Like Crystal Williams, Davis had been a contestant on Lizzo’s Amazon actuality present “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” which centered across the star discovering plus-sized dancers for her tour.
Rodriguez was a extra established dancer and had appeared within the 2021 music video for Lizzo’s single “Rumors.”
The occasions of the previous few years have impacted their careers. They fear about their reputations. Rodriguez, who has shifted extra into appearing, mentioned she’s contemplating going again to highschool and pursuing regulation due to the expertise. Crystal Williams mentioned that, like their former employer, they’re anticipating the information to be heard.
“We want chance and an opportunity for her to be held accountable. We want the facts to come out, we want evidence to come out,” she mentioned. “We want to be able to address the truth just as much as she does. So we’re ready to see it through.”