Dua Lipa hit with another lawsuit over 'Levitating': Copyright controversy explained

Days after English musician Dua Lipa was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over her worldwide hit song Levitating, another group of songwriters have filed a separate lawsuit for the same song.

Songwriters L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer have claimed that Dua Lipa copied their 1979 song Wiggle and Giggle All Night and a 1980 song, Don Diablo. Brown and Linzer have alleged that the opening melody to Levitating is a duplicate of the melody of their songs.

“Defendants have levitated away plaintiffs’ intellectual property,” Billboard quoted lawyers for Brown and Linzer who wrote in their complaint. They also highlighted the press interviews in which they said Dua Lipa admitted that she took inspiration from earlier music. They asserted that the signature melody, which went viral in TikTok videos, took a portion of earlier songs.

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Songwriters claim Dua Lipa used a portion of earlier songs as her signature melody

The current lawsuit focuses on the song's signature melody from the beginning of Levitating. The lawyers noted that the signature melody is the most listened to and recognizable part of the infringing works and plays a crucial role in their popularity. They said:

“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 the lawsuit, the signature melody has been repeated six times in Levitating and three times in Levitating (Da Baby).

You can compare Levitating with Wiggle and Giggle All Night and Don Diablo below:

The following is the 1980 song Don Diablo:

The development comes in less than a week after a Florida reggae group Artikal Sound System filed a lawsuit alleging that Dua Lipa had copied elements of their song Live Your Life while creating Levitating. The complaint noted that,

"It is doubtful that ‘Levitating’ was created independently.”

The group is asking for profits made off the composition along with damages. The band released their track in 2017, while Levitating arrived in 2020 and was later featured on the album Future Nostalgia (2021).

Levitating, which first appeared in 2020, topped at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and was named the No. 1 Hot 100 song for 2021. It is the longest-running top 10 song ever by a female artist on the chart.

The song had elements of electro-disco and nu-disco influences with several disco tropes. It praised dance-pop, pop-funk, power pop, space rock vibes, and 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s pop and R&B styles.

However, the current lawsuit emphasizes that in “seeking nostalgic inspiration, defendants copied plaintiffs’ creation without attribution.” The case has also named Warner Music Group, DaBaby, and others who contributed to the song as defendants.