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Dua Lipa Scores Legal Win as Judge Dismisses "Levitating" Copyright Lawsuit

Dua Lipa scored a legal victory in a copyright lawsuit over her 2020 smash hit “Levitating” after a judge dismissed the case. Lipa was initially hit with a pair of “Levitating” copyright lawsuits in March 2022, one from Florida reggae group named Artikal Sound System that was dismissed in June 2023, and another from L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer. Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the latter in New York court on Monday, explaining that the commonalities between songs were not protectable under copyright law. In their initial suit, Brown and Linzer accused Lipa of copying both their 1979 song “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” and 1980 song “Don Diablo,” two tracks dating from the disco era. They stated that the opening melody of “Levitating” was a “duplicate” of the melody to their songs and claimed that Lipa herself had “admitted that she deliberately emulated prior eras” in the press and “took inspiration” to create a “retro” sound.