Dua Lipa Faces Second Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over Hit Song Levitating

In the span of one week, Singer Dua Lipa has been hit with two lawsuits claiming copyright infringement over her 2020 hit, Levitating.

Lipa’s hit comes from her 2020 album, Future Nostalgia, and the single has become a staple in modern pop culture after landing the number two spot on Billboard’s Hot 100. The single later topped the list of Hot 100 songs of 2021. Lipa’s Levitate also landed her the accolade of having the longest-running top 10 song by a female artist.

As with many musical hits, it wasn't long before controversy around the singer’s top track began to swirl. The first lawsuit comes from the Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System. In their complaint, the band alleges that Lipa plagiarized the tune from Artikal Sound System’s 2017 hit song Live Your Life.

On March 4, a second lawsuit was filed by songwriters Russel Brown and Sandy Linzer. The songwriters accuse Lipa of copying the 1979 disco song, Wiggle and Giggle All Night, and the 1980 song, Don Diablo. The duo alleges that Lipa violated their copyrights in the verse of the song, Wiggle and Giggle All Night.

In the complaint, Brown and Linzer make mention of the song’s use on popular music and dance sharing platform TikTok. They explain that their intellectual property, which was used without permission by Lipa, was key to Levitating’s success. The lawsuit details, “Because video creators frequently truncate the already brief snippets of sound on TikTok, the signature melody often comprises 50% or more of these viral videos.”

Brown and Linzer seem to poke a bit of fun at the situation as their complaint explains, “Defendants have levitated away plaintiffs’ intellectual property,” adding, “Plaintiffs bring suit so that defendants cannot wiggle out of their willful infringement.”

Under federal copyright protection law, authors are given “exclusive property rights in the work, such as the sole right to reproduce, adapt, distribute, display and perform the work.” The Copyright Act details that “[i]n no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.” In short, copyright law protects the “expression,” but not the “idea” of a work.

Under copyright protection, the standard of “substantial similarity” is used to determine whether copyright infringement has taken place. Under this standard, a plaintiff must show that the defendant, Lipa, had access to the plaintiff's work and that the defendant's work is substantially similar to the protected parts of a piece of work.

Different tests go into effect to determine if two works are substantially similar. While this process may seem cut and dried, in the music industry there are several factors to consider, especially the notion that “coincidental similarity” is more prevalent than many might think. Despite this, the idea of “substantial similarity” is something both lawsuits claim against Lipa.

Lipa has not publicly responded to the lawsuits. However, in her past interviews, Lipa shared that she drew inspiration for her music from historic music. Brown and Linzer’s lawsuit highlights this, explaining that Lipa “admitted that she deliberately emulated prior eras.”

Artikal Sound System also alleges in their lawsuit that because Lipa's hit was so similar to their own 2017 track, it was “highly unlikely that Levitating was created independently.”