Dua Lipa, the British pop star, along with music label Warner Records, has recently secured the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a reggae group from Florida in a Los Angeles federal court.
The reggae group accused Dua Lipa’s hit song “Levitating” of copying one of their songs.
British pop star Dua Lipa and music label Warner Records successfully persuaded a Los Angeles federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a reggae group from Florida. The group had accused Lipa’s hit song “Levitating” of copying one of their songs.
U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes ruled that Artikal Sound System failed to provide evidence that the writers of “Levitating” had access to their 2017 song “Live Your Life.” However, Sykes allowed the reggae group to file a new complaint if they wished to do so.
Additionally, the judge denied the band’s request to transfer the case to New York, where another infringement lawsuit involving songwriters Sandy Linzer and L. Russell Brown is being heard. Linzer and Brown claim similarities between their disco songs “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” and “Don Diablo” and Lipa’s “Levitating.”
Requests for comment from Lipa and Artikal Sound System representatives were not promptly answered.
“Levitating” achieved significant success on Billboard’s Hot 100 U.S. singles chart, spending 77 weeks and reaching No. 2 in 2021.
In the 2022 filed complaint, it was contended that the similarities in melodies, harmonies, and other elements between the two songs made it “highly unlikely” that “Levitating” was independently created.
Judge Sykes sided with Lipa and agreed that Artikal Sound System’s complaint lacked evidence to support the claim that the defendants had the opportunity to encounter their song prior to writing “Levitating.”
Artikal Sound System argued that they had performed “Live Your Life” at concerts, distributed it through streaming services, and even sold several hundred copies of a CD containing the song.
However, Judge Sykes ruled that these actions were insufficient to establish that the song had been widely disseminated to the extent that the songwriters of “Levitating” could have heard and copied it.
