Dua Lipa wins bid to dismiss copyright claim against her global pop hit Levitating

Pop superstar Dua Lipa has claimed victory in the copyright case against her monster pop hit Levitating dismissed. See why.

Dua Lipa claims court victoriy in her copycat case over global pop hit Levitating. Picture: Getty Images

Pop superstar Dua Lipa has won a legal victory over claims her global smash hit Levitating ripped off a relatively unknown reggae track.

A US federal court judge dismissed the copyright complaint by south Florida band Artikal Sound System that the 2020 chart-topper co-written by Dua Lipa and a clutch of American hitmakers borrowed its hook from their 2017 track Live Your Life.

Judge Sunshine Sykes found no evidence that the British Albanian artist or her co-writers had access to the reggae track before they wrote Levitating, which has generated more than two billion streams since its release.

A judge has found it is unlikely the Levitating writers heard an unknown reggae band’s song. Picture: Getty

The South Florida musicians claimed a convoluted theory of association between their band and the Levitating writing team to suggest how the copyright breach may have happened.

US music trade bible Billboard reported the reggae band had offered that “one of Lipa’s co-writer had previously worked with a woman who was allegedly taught guitar by the brother-in-law of one band member.”

But Judge Sykes wasn’t convinced that theory held water.

“These attenuated links, which bear little connection to either of the two musical compositions at issue here, also do not suggest a reasonable likelihood that defendants actually encountered plaintiffs’ song,” the judge wrote.

The reggae outfit had also argued the Levitating writing team must have heard the track because it had been played at concerts, was available via streaming and had sold “several hundred” physical CDs.

The judge wrote those arguments were “too generic or too insubstantial” to sustain a copyright lawsuit.

This isn’t the only copyright claim against Levitating.

In August last year, Dua Lipa’s lawyers moved to dismiss a claim that her track bore similarities to the 1979 song Wiggle and Giggle All Night, arguing she had never heard of the Latin disco band Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.

Ed Sheeran leaves Manhattan Federal Court after he was found not guilty in a music copyright trial in New York last month. Picture: Getty

After Ed Sheeran won his copyright court battle last year brought against his song Shape of You, the British chart slayer said it was time for “baseless claims” which targeted the monster hits of the world’s biggest pop stars to end.

Copyright cases in the US and UK have exploded since 2015, when Blurred Lines writers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were found guilty of copying the “feel” of Marvin Gaye’s Got To Give It Up, rather than directly plagiarising musical phrases or lyrics.

Sheeran won another legal battle last month that his hit Thinking Out Loud infringed on the copyright of Gaye’s soul classic Let’s Get It On.

“I just think it comes with the territory. When they say there’s a hit, there’s a writ – it’s true. Every single hit,” he said after the case was dismissed.

Originally published as Dua Lipa wins bid to dismiss copyright claim against her global pop hit Levitating