Dua Lipa has successfully defended herself against a lawsuit accusing her of copying elements of her 2020 hit Levitating from two earlier songs. A Manhattan court dismissed the case, ruling that Levitating did not bear enough similarities to warrant a trial.
The lawsuit, filed by songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, alleged that Lipa had plagiarized their 1979 disco track Wiggle and Giggle All Night and elements from Don Diablo. However, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla rejected the claim, citing a past federal appeals court decision in Ed Sheeran’s case over Let’s Get It On. She noted that the melodies in Levitating and Wiggle and Giggle All Night resembled musical patterns found in compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gioachino Rossini, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the Bee Gees.
“The court finds that a musical style, defined by Plaintiffs as ‘pop with a disco feel,’ and a musical function, including ‘entertainment and dancing,’ cannot possibly be protected—alone or in tandem—because it would completely foreclose the further development of music in that genre or for that purpose," Judge Failla stated, according to Rolling Stone.
Lipa’s legal team maintained that neither she nor her co-writers had ever heard Wiggle and Giggle All Night or Don Diablo, attributing any similarities to common musical building blocks rather than intentional copying.
This marks another victory for Lipa, who has faced multiple copyright claims over Levitating. In 2023, a Florida reggae band, Artikal Sound System, also accused her of plagiarism, claiming she lifted the chorus from their 2015 song Live Your Life. However, the case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
Despite these legal wins, Lipa still faces an ongoing lawsuit from producer Bosko Kante, who sued her in 2023 for allegedly using his talk-box vocals in Levitating remixes without permission. The case remains unresolved.