Dua Lipa has emerged victorious in a copyright case regarding her smash hit "Levitating." The lawsuit, filed in 2022, accused her of stealing from the disco classics "Wiggle and Giggle All Night" (1979) by L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, and "Don Diablo" (1980). On Thursday, U.S. Judge Katherine Polk Failla rejected the claims, stating the only similarities were generic and non-protectable by copyright law.
This isn’t Lipa's first showdown over "Levitating." She previously won a case against the Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System, who alleged she borrowed from their 2015 tune "Live Your Life." Their lawsuit was dismissed in 2023 due to lack of proof of access to the earlier song.
However, Lipa isn't entirely out of the woods. Musician Bosko Kante has filed a new lawsuit claiming his vocal contributions on the track were used without permission, seeking over $2 million in damages. In response to the recent ruling on the prior case, Lipa's accusers, Brown and Linzer, announced their intention to appeal, although the judge pointed out that features of their claim were too common in pop and disco to warrant protection. Coincidentally, the ruling was delivered on the fifth anniversary of "Levitating's" initial release on Lipa's album "Future Nostalgia."
This isn’t Lipa's first showdown over "Levitating." She previously won a case against the Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System, who alleged she borrowed from their 2015 tune "Live Your Life." Their lawsuit was dismissed in 2023 due to lack of proof of access to the earlier song.
However, Lipa isn't entirely out of the woods. Musician Bosko Kante has filed a new lawsuit claiming his vocal contributions on the track were used without permission, seeking over $2 million in damages. In response to the recent ruling on the prior case, Lipa's accusers, Brown and Linzer, announced their intention to appeal, although the judge pointed out that features of their claim were too common in pop and disco to warrant protection. Coincidentally, the ruling was delivered on the fifth anniversary of "Levitating's" initial release on Lipa's album "Future Nostalgia."
