Beyoncé appears to skip Lizzo’s name in ‘Break My Soul’ performance after lawsuit allegations
Beyoncé has appeared to skip Lizzo’s name in her live rendition of ‘Break My Soul’, following lawsuit allegations being raised against her.
News broke yesterday (August 1) that the ‘About Damn Time’ singer is being sued by three of her former dancers, who cite accusations of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
Now, although Lizzo has yet to respond to the accusations raised against her, it appears that Beyoncé has drawn light to the allegations at her most recent show in Boston, Massachusetts.
The moment took place during Beyoncé’s set – as part of her hit ‘Renaissance’ tour – where she performs ‘The Queens Remix’ of her 2022 song ‘Break My Soul’. In the remix, she begins to list off a number of iconic and boundary-breaking Black female artists.
Usually, she lists off names, including Betty Davis, Solange Knowles, Erykah Badu, Lizzo and Kelly Rowland. However, at yesterday’s show (August 1), which came just hours after the allegations came to light, the singer left Lizzo’s name out of the list.
Instead, she mentioned rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer Erykah Badu four times while on stage at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. Find footage of the moment below.
“BADU BADU BADU BADU”
— Beyoncé Press.
| Fan Account (@beyoncepress) August 2, 2023
NBC News named the dancers involved in the lawsuit as Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Noelle Rodriguez. They all danced for Lizzo until earlier this year, when Davis and Williams were fired and Rodriguez resigned shortly after.
The alleged incident of sexual harassment mentioned supposedly took place in a strip club in Amsterdam earlier this year.
The suit states that Lizzo “began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas”.
It also stated that on the same evening, “Lizzo then turned her attention to Ms. Davis and began pressuring Ms. Davis to touch the breasts of one of the nude women”.
The suit also alleges that Lizzo subjected the group to an “excruciating” audition, following 12 hours of rehearsal, after falsely accusing them of drinking on the job.
Lizzo – real name Melissa Viviane Jefferson – shared her appreciation for Beyoncé last month in a TikTok update.
“There are days where the hate outweighs the love so badly that I want to quit music and just disappear,” she said in the clip, “I definitely have enough money to go and buy a farm and just never fuck with anybody ever again, because fuck everybody. Then, I reminded myself to get up, get out, and get some sun, and I put on ‘Renaissance’.”
Following the accusations, NME reached out to Lizzo’s representatives for comment.
In other Beyoncé news, at her show on Saturday (July 29), the singer paid tribute to a professional dancer who was fatally stabbed after dancing to her music.
The post Beyoncé appears to skip Lizzo’s name in ‘Break My Soul’ performance after lawsuit allegations appeared first on NME.
Liberty Dunworth
NME
