Dua Lipa has emerged victorious in a copyright lawsuit that accused her of copying elements of her chart-topping hit “Levitating.”
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the case filed in Manhattan by songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who alleged Lipa lifted the “signature melody” from their 1979 disco track “Wiggle and Giggle All Night.”
While acknowledging that some listeners might notice similarities, the judge ruled there was no “substantial similarity” and that many of the claimed elements were too common to be protected by copyright—such as the use of a minor scale or disco-style rhythm. She even pointed out that such elements appeared in works by Mozart, Rossini, and the Bee Gees.
The ruling leaned on a recent precedent from a federal court that cleared Ed Sheeran in a similar copyright battle involving Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Jason Brown, who is also Russell Brown’s nephew, stated they plan to appeal, emphasizing that the case was about protecting the integrity of original songwriting.
Lipa, who released “Levitating” as part of her Future Nostalgia album, topped Billboard’s 2021 year-end chart with the song.