Dua Lipa beats lawsuit claiming she copied the song Levitating from a 70s disco song
15m ago15 minutes agoFri 28 Mar 2025 at 1:39am
A woman in a black and white top holds a microphone with her arms out.
GLASTONBURY, ENGLAND - JUNE 28: Dua Lipa performs as she headlines the Pyramid stage during day three of Glastonbury Festival 2024 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 28, 2024 in Glastonbury, England. Founded by Michael Eavis in 1970, Glastonbury Festival features around 3,000 performances across over 80 stages. Renowned for its vibrant atmosphere and iconic Pyramid Stage, the festival offers a diverse lineup of music and arts, embodying a spirit of community, creativity, and environmental consciousness. (Photo by Samir Hussein/WireImage) (Getty Images: Samir Hussein)
In short:
Dua Lipa won the dismissal of a lawsuit which claimed she copied her song Levitating from a 1979 disco song.
Songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer failed to show "substantial similarity" between their song Wiggle and Giggle All Night and Lipa's hit.
What's next?
A lawyer for the plaintiffs says they plan to appeal.
British pop singer Dua Lipa has won the dismissal of a lawsuit in New York accusing the British pop star of copying her 2021 megahit Levitating from a 1979 disco song.
US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer failed to show "substantial similarity" between Levitating and their song Wiggle and Giggle All Night, though some listeners could hear similarities.
The plaintiffs alleged that Levitating copied its signature melody from Wiggle and Giggle All Night and another song, called Don Diablo, to which they held a copyright.
But the judge found that melody unprotectable in light of November's federal appeals court decision that Ed Sheeran's 2014 song Thinking Out Loud did not illegally copy Marvin Gaye's classic Let's Get It On.
Failla also found several other alleged similarities between Levitating and Wiggle and Giggle all Night were commonplace, having appeared in Mozart and Rossini operas, Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees.
"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," Failla wrote.
To hold otherwise, she said, would "completely foreclose the further development of music in that genre or for that purpose."
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Jason Brown, said they plan to appeal.
"This case has always been about standing up for the enduring value of original songwriting," Brown, who is L. Russell Brown's nephew, said in an email.
Lawyers for Ms Lipa, her label Warner Records and other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The singer is currently touring her album Radical Optimism in Australia.
They called it implausible to believe Lipa, 29, heard Wiggle and Giggle All Night before writing Levitating, and said the plaintiffs could not "monopolise one of the most commonplace and rudimentary elements of music: the use of a minor scale".
Brown's other songs include Tony Orlando and Dawn's Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree and Knock Three Times, while Linzer's songs include the Four Seasons' Let's Hang On! and Working My Way Back To You.
Levitating, from Ms Lipa's album Future Nostalgia, was the Nu,mber 1 song on Billboard's 2021 year-end chart.
Posted15m ago15 minutes agoFri 28 Mar 2025 at 1:39am
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