Dua Lipa defends 2020 strip club visit with Lizzo: ‘It’s really important to respect women’s choices’
Singers visited venue with Lil Nas X and Rosalía after the January 2020 Grammy awards
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Your support makes all the difference.Dua Lipa has defended visiting a strip club with Lizzo in 2020.
In January 2020, the two pop stars visited a strip club together with fellow hitmakers Lil Nas X and Rosalía. The quartet had all been in attendance at the Grammy Awards earlier that night, with Lizzo, 35, sharing a clip of Lipa, 28, dancing, throwing money and placing dollar bills inside a dancer’s underwear.
At the time, the singer’s faced criticism, with some suggesting it wasn’t “feminist” of them to attend. Lipa defended herself soon after, saying that she “believes in supporting women in all fields of work”.
In a new interview, which took place before the news that Lizzo is being sued by former members of her dance troupe over a number of allegations, including sexual harassment and weight shaming, Lipa was asked about the incident again.
“Obviously, I’m against any kind of exploitation,” Lipa told Vogue France.
“But I also see this endless criticism of women’s choices. It’s like navigating a minefield from the very beginning. We’re s***shamed for everything and anything.”
She continued: “Does anyone think of people’s own experiences before attacking them? So, for me, it’s really important to respect women’s choices, whatever they are.”
Earlier this month, the lawsuit was filed against Lizzo by three former dancers. One of the allegations made against Lizzo is that she claimed to have pressured one of her dancers, Arianna Davis, into touching a nude performer at an Amsterdam strip club earlier this year.
The dancers claim 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 is also alleged that Lizzo set up a humiliating 12-hour re-audition for her dancers, and fostered a hostile work environment.
Lizzo has denied the allegations, “calling them gut-wrenchingly difficult and overwhelmingly disappointing”.
Earlier this week, her lawyer claimed that Lizzo intends to counter-sue her former back-up dancers for “malicious prosecution” following their current lawsuit lodged against her.
The lawyer told The Independent that the initial lawsuit against Lizzo was a “sham”.