What were the allegations against Dua Lipa? Songstress scores victory as judge dismisses Levitating copyright lawsuit

Dua Lipa scored a victory in the 2022 copyright lawsuit that was filed against her by songwriters L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer. The win came with US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissing the suit in a Manhattan court on Thursday, March 27. For context, the suit was surrounding her 2020 hit song Levitating.

As reported by Rolling Stone, the judge stated that Levitating did not have enough similarities with the 1979 track Wiggle & A Giggle All Night to go to trial. According to Judge Katherine:

"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 — alone or in tandem..."

In March 2022, Dua Lipa found herself in the middle of a couple of lawsuits related to Levitating. One suit was filed by Artikal Sound System, a Florida-based reggae group. This was eventually dismissed in June 2023. Another one was filed by L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who wrote Wiggle & A Giggle All Night.

Brown and Linzer accused Dua Lipa of copying two songs: Wiggle & A Giggle All Night and Don Diablo. According to their suit, the opening melody of Dua's song was a "duplicate" of the melodies of the aforementioned tracks.

Dua's lawyer Christine Lepera had previously argued that neither the singer nor the songwriters of Levitating had ever heard the two songs by Brown and Linzer before. This became the second time that Dua won a plagiarism case over Levitating.

Artikal Sound System had accused her of copying their 2015 song Live Your Life. At the time, it was held that there was no proof to corroborate that Dua Lipa or her co-writers had any access to the song.

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After Dua Lipa's victory, opponent attorney Jason T. Brown claimed that they "respectfully disagree" with the judge's decision

Amid Dua Lipa's latest win, Jason T. Brown, who was representing L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer told Variety that they did not agree to the outcome of the suit. He further revealed that they might consider appealing the decision. Jason additionally said:

"Even the defense expert acknowledged that people can hear the similarities between Don Diablo and Levitating. But under recent case law — including the Structured Asset Sales v. Sheeran decision — courts have become increasingly focused on what can be dissected and filtered out on paper, rather than what is felt through the music itself."

He then mentioned that there had been a big gap between how these cases get decided. According to Jason, the decision gets based on a lot of analysis and not on how the music have made listeners feel.

For context, in 2023, Ed Sheeran was accused of infringing on Marvin Gaye's 1973 song Let’s Get It On for his 2014 track Thinking Out Loud. The court later decided that there was no infringement on Ed's end.

While Dua Lipa could enjoy this recent win, she is still in the middle of another lawsuit surrounding the same song. In 2023, producer Bosko Kante reportedly filed a lawsuit against the singer, accusing her of using a talkbox recording on the remix version of the track without prior approval.