Dua Lipa must face lawsuit claiming she copied ‘Levitating’

Reuters :

A federal judge in Manhattan said the British pop star Dua Lipa must face a lawsuit accusing her of copying her 2021 megahit ‘Levitating’ from a 1979 disco song.

US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla on Tuesday said songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer could try to prove ‘substantial similarity’ between ‘Levitating’ and their song ‘Wiggle and Giggle All Night’.

Lawyers for Lipa and her record label Warner Records did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit, filed in March 2022, claimed that ‘Levitating’ shared ‘compositional elements’ with ‘Wiggle’, most significantly byduplicating its opening melody.

Defense lawyers argued that it was implausible to believe that Lipa, 27, heard ‘Wiggle’before writing ‘Levitating’.

Failla agreed, but said the plaintiffs alleged ‘just enough facts’ to argue that the songs were so ‘strikingly similar’, including by sharing a ‘repetitive rhythm’ and ‘signature melody’ that Lipamust have copied theirs.