Jason Derulo is being sued for sexual harassment by singer Emaza Gibson, after signing her to a record deal then eventually terminating it without cause.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday (October 5), Gibson accuses Derulo of sexual harassment. She claims that in 2021, he promised her a record deal with his Future History imprint, but eventually reneged on it after she turned down his multiple sexual advances and invitations to dinner and drinks.
Gibson says that Derulo began to exhibit "aggressive behaviour" after two separate incidents, one in which he charged towards her when she arrived late for a recording session. and implied that she would have to sleep with him to succeed. She also feared for her safety.
She tells NBC News, "I’m at this point in my life right now, it’s very heartbreaking. I have anxiety; I’m traumatized. I’ve dealt with inhumane work situations. … I’m at this point where I’m back to zero and I have nothing.”
During one recording session in September 2021, she accuses Derulo of giving her “inappropriately large amounts of alcohol” which he pressured her to drink. He also invited her to take part in something he called “goat skin and fish scales,” which she understood as a sex ritual and cocaine use. "I’ve never heard about this, and I was trying to find and make sense of what it was, and I came across those articles,” she said.
Gibson is currently represented by Rob Zambrano, the same attorney working Lizzo's sexual harassment suit. Zambrano tells Page Six, “Mr. Derulo’s behaviour toward this young artist was despicable, and, unfortunately, another example of the music industry’s dark underbelly.”