Dua Lipa wins ‘Levitating’ copyright case

nme.com:

Dua Lipa has won the dismissal of a lawsuit that had accused her of copying her 2020 hit track ‘Levitating’ from two other songs.Back in 2022, the pop star was sued by songwriters L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer who claimed that Lipa had plagiarised their songs – 1979’s ‘Wiggle And Giggle All Night’ and 1980’s ‘Don Diablo’ while creating ‘Levatiating’.“The signature melody is the most listened to and recognizable part of the infringing works and plays a crucial role in their popularity,” the complaint read (via Billboard). “Because video creators frequently truncate the already brief snippets of sound on TikTok, the signature melody often comprises fifty percent or more of these viral videos.” As per BBC, Yesterday (March 27), US Judge Katherine Polk Failla went on to rule that Lipa’s song and L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer songs only had generic similarities along with non-copyrightable musical elements which had been previously used by the likes of Mozart and the Bee Gees in their 1977 hit ‘Stayin’ Alive’.Lipa’s court win marked the second time she had won a plagiarism suit against her hit song.