Lizzo finds herself amid another lawsuit while accepting the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award at the Black Music Action Coalition Gala (BMAC) Thursday night. According to Billboard, a clothing designer named Asha Daniels filed a lawsuit against the pop star earlier that day. Daniels alleged receiving harassment and discrimination from members of the Special tour team that Daniels had recently worked on.
None of Daniel’s accusations explicitly implicated Lizzo in any of harassment that she received. That said, Daniel accused Lizzo of “turning a blind eye to the toxic behavior of her employees.”
Following the announcement of Daniel’s lawsuit, a representative of Lizzo presented the following statement to various outlets.
“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 went on to receive her award that night with no mention of the controversy or the latest lawsuit against her. Instead, the singer highlighted the amount of time and effort she pushed her career into lifting up important causes in marginalized communities.
“I want to thank you for this award. I’ve been blessed to receive a lot of incredible awards, but this one truly hits different because humanitarianism in its nature is thankless, it’s selfless, and to be kind to someone isn’t a talent, you know, everyone can do it,” said Lizzo. “It’s a gift, and in all my years of activism and outreach, I have witnessed at the core of every organization, every movement, every march, is people helping people, and they do it every damn day…”
Ron Zambrano, Daniels attorney, put out a statement following on Lizzo’s latest award.
“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,” said Zambrano. “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.”
Previously, Lizzo was sued by three former backup dancers in August, who claimed that the singer and her dance team captain fostered a toxic work environment, in addition to allegations of body shaming, as well as sexual and religious harassment.
