Another lawsuit has reportedly been filed against Lizzo. According to Rolling Stone, Asra Daniels, who worked for Lizzo during her 2023 Special 2our as a wardrobe designer, filed a lawsuit against Lizzo, her wardrobe manager Amanda Nomura, and her tour manager Carlina Gugliotta today (September 21) in a Los Angeles court.
The suit reportedly accuses Lizzo and her team of “racial and sexual harassment, disability discrimination, illegal retaliatory termination, and assault.”
According to Rolling Stone, Nomura is at the center of the lawsuit, and Daniels has accused Nomura of making “racist and fatphobic comments” toward Lizzo’s dancers.
The suit also alleges that “Nomura would also refer to Black women on the tour as ‘dumb,’ ‘useless,’ and ‘fat.’”
In the suit, it is also noted that “Nomura expressed that she would ‘kill a b*tch if it came down to it’ if anyone threatened her job. Lizzo’s management was well aware of this pattern of behavior. Carlina Gugliotta, Lizzo’s Tour Manager even requested Plaintiff to record Nomura without her knowledge, which Plaintiff did not do as it was both unethical and possibly unlawful.”
Elsewhere in the suit are details of Lizzo’s management “sharing graphic and disturbing images of male genitalia” in a 30-person group text, as well as an incident in which Daniels describes Nomura rolling “a heavy clothing rack over Daniels’ foot, causing serious pain, but Nomura merely ignored it and pushed Daniels into the rack, causing a more severe injury.”
Daniels was reportedly fired abruptly from the tour, and claims to have suffered mental and physical health issues as a result of her time working with Lizzo and her team.
The news arrives as Lizzo is preparing to receive the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award presented by the Black Music Action Coalition.
Ahead of the awards ceremony, Ron Zambrano, who is representing Daniels and three of Lizzo’s former dancers, issued a statement, saying:
“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. It won’t work. 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. Lizzo is the boss so the buck stops with her. 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.”
Stefan Friedman, a representative for Lizzo, has issued a statement to Rolling Stone has issued a statement coming to the singer’s defense, saying:
“As Lizzo receives a Humanitarian Award tonight from the Black Music Action Coalition for the incredible charitable work she has done to lift up all people, an ambulance-chasing lawyer tries to sully this honor by recruiting someone to file a bogus, absurd publicity-stunt lawsuit who, wait for it, never actually met or even spoke with Lizzo. We will pay this as much attention as it deserves. None.”
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.