Dua Lipa’s Dual Lawsuits Explained: Musicologists Break Down ‘Levitating’ Similarities

variety.com:

Ethan Shanfeld Dua Lipa got hit with dual lawsuits this month surrounding her mega-hit song “Levitating.”The first of the copyright infringement suits comes from Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System, which accused Lipa of copying its 2017 song “Live Your Life.” The second hails from songwriters L.

Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who allege that Lipa stole from two of their songs — “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” (1979) and “Don Diablo” (1980).Variety spoke with musicologists E.

Michael Harrington, who consulted on Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” case and was approached by Linzer and Brown in their attempt to defeat Lipa; and Judith Finell, who delivered the landmark expert testimony on behalf of the Marvin Gaye estate in the infamous “Blurred Lines” case.

While “Levitating” certainly shares similarities with the plaintiffs’ work, Harrington and Finell explain why determining infringement requires more than meets the ear.“Sounding alike is almost always unimportant,” Harrington says, emphasizing that music of a particular style will generally be built upon the same musical ideas and motifs that define the genre.Harrington emphasizes that in Western music, there are only 12 notes.