A 25-year-old singer is accusing pop star Jason Derulo of sexual harassment, alleging that he pressured her to drink and have sex with him after signing her to his record label and then dropped her when she refused his advances.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday, Emaza Gibson said that after Derulo had signed her with the promise of collaborating on several albums, he used physical aggression to intimidate her and then refused to record with her once she insisted on maintaining a strictly professional relationship with him.
As a result, Gibson claimed, she was deprived of the resources and funding to complete and promote the planned album.
“I worked really hard,” she told HuffPost. “I shouldn’t have to sleep with anybody to secure a deal.”
Derulo denied Gibson’s claims in a statement posted to Instagram late Thursday night, calling them “completely false and hurtful.”
“I stand against all forms of harassment and I remain supportive of anybody following their dreams,” Derulo said. “I’ve always strived to live my life in a positively impactful way, and that’s why I sit here before you deeply offended, by these defamatory claims. God bless.”
Derulo was acting as Gibson’s mentor and supervising agent in a deal he struck for her with Atlantic Records and his own label, Future History, Gibson said.
Her lawsuit claims that before they recorded any music, Derulo advised her that in order to succeed, she would have to participate in “goat skin and fish scales,” which she interpreted as “conducting sex rituals and doing cocaine.”
Derulo invited Gibson to dinner and drinks “on multiple occasions,” according to the lawsuit, but she turned him down because she wanted to keep their relationship “purely professional.” But at the studio, she said, he pressured her to drink alcohol with him, even though she told him she doesn’t drink.
“Compounding the sexualized nature” of his drink invitations, Gibson claimed, he deliberately scheduled their recording sessions for late at night, when he continued to pressure her to drink.
In November 2021, Gibson met with Derulo and Atlantic executives in New York City. Another woman, who is not identified in the lawsuit, allegedly told her privately that Derulo only invited Gibson to the meeting because he wanted to have sex with her.
Gibson said that when she asked Derulo about the other woman after the meeting, he “lost control,” waving his arms across her face and screaming, which made her feel “trapped and afraid” in the car.
Gibson was alone, she told HuffPost, on several other occasions when she claimed Derulo was “being aggressive” and yelling at her. She said that her mother, who was her manager, was with her in her final recording session with him in June 2022, when Gibson alleges that he yelled and “charged towards” her because he was angry that the two women were late. He calmed down and tried to hug her, she said, but she ran to the bathroom, crying, she said.
One of Derulo’s engineers tried to comfort her, describing his behavior as “just tough love,” Gibson’s lawsuit claims.
“It’s not tough love,” she told HuffPost. “I know about abusive men. I shouldn’t be in that predicament in a professional setting … I could have been pulled to the side to talk about these things or approached differently. And I was embarrassed.”
The next day, Gibson’s mother contacted Derulo’s manager, Frank Harris, who responded that Derulo “is going to do whatever he’s going to do” and that “I’m not his master,” according to the suit.
Harris and Atlantic Records, also named in the lawsuit, did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.
As a result of Derulo’s aggression, Gibson said, she feels uncomfortable around other men.
Gibson’s attorney, Ron Zambrano, called Derulo’s behavior “despicable” and “another example of the music industry’s dark underbelly.”
“He not only broke promises and breached contracts, but his threats of physical harm and unconscionable sexual advances toward this young woman who is just trying to break into the industry were outrageous and illegal,” Zambrano said in a statement shared with HuffPost. “Executives knew of Derulo’s behavior without a care. No one should have to suffer through such treatment by their employer, and in this case, by someone who preyed on the plaintiff’s vulnerabilities and desire to succeed, then just threw her away like garbage when he didn’t get his way.”
Gibson is seeking a jury trial and compensation for lost wages and benefits, legal fees and medical expenses related to the emotional distress she claims she suffered.