Dua Lipa ‘Levitating’ Copyright Lawsuit Dismissed

A copyright infringement lawsuit against Dua Lipa over her 2017 hit “Levitating” has been dismissed, according to Billboard. The lawsuit in question was the second of three separate lawsuits against the British singer, and was filed in 2022, after a previous case, filed earlier that year, was dismissed by a judge who doubted the veracity of the plaintiff’s claims.

This second suit was filed by songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who claimed she duplicated elements of their 1979 song “Wiggle And Giggle All Night” and the 1980 song “Don Diablo.” They specifically cited the opening melody from “Levitating” as unlawfully swiping their sound.

However, in her decision dismissing the case, Judge Katherine Polk Failla wrote, “The court finds that a musical style, defined by plaintiffs as ‘pop with a disco feel,’ and a musical function, defined by plaintiffs to include ‘entertainment and dancing,’ cannot possibly be protectable. To hold otherwise would be to completely foreclose the further development of music in that genre or for that purpose.”

Not to mention the 30 or so other bids for Billboard dominance that included similar nu-disco styling, including Megan Thee Stallion’s Dua Lipa collaboration “Sweetest Pie” and Doja Cat’s breakout hit “Say So.” Judge Failla also cited The Beegees for their disco-influenced sound, and even Mozart, whose use of patter style singing in his operas predates the technology to record music to a physical medium. These were examples, she said, of “common, unprotectable elements.”

Now, Lipa only has one lawsuit over “Levitating” remaining. This one, filed in 2023 by producer Bosko Kante over some of the song’s many remixes, pertains to the use of a “talk box” digital audio workstation plug-in. Kante, the plug-in’s creator, says he denied permission to use the plug-in on the song after being approached by one of its producers. However, his lawyers said in his suit, “All three remixes sampled and incorporated a greater amount of plaintiff’s work than that used in the original version.”