Breaking Down The Multiple Lawsuits Against Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’

Dua Lipa’s globe-conquering hit ‘Levitating’ has been hit with a second plagiarism claim, with a new suit claiming that songwriters completely copied a melody from an ’80s disco track. 

The fresh complainants — American songwriters,  L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer — have accused Dua Lipa of copying the main melody from their songs ‘Wiggle & Giggle All Night’ and ‘Don Diablo’. 

They claim the introduction melody of ‘Levitating’ is an exact “duplicate” of their songs, using the same rhythm and melody. The writers are claiming that the alleged plagiarism is especially damaging because it appears at the beginning of the track — and was subsequently used in a competition Dua Lipa hosted on TikTok, offering users with the best remix of the track to be featured in her official video clip.

Have a listen to them both below.

The suit follows another copyright claim made by Florida band Artikal Sound System, who argued that their 2017 song ‘Live Your Life’ was so similar that it was “highly unlikely that Levitating was created independently”.

Have a listen: 

TikTok investigators initially posited that ‘Live Your Life’ might actually be a hoax, with no evidence aside from a SoundCloud link to prove that the song was actually released prior to Duo Lipa’s Levitating. However, users recently discovered concrete evidence that Artikal Sound System’s song came first, after discovering a distribution link for an EP with the track from 2017.

Other users have been quick to point out that the chorus melody in question has existed in the public domain for ages, arguing that ‘Levitating’ also sounds heaps like the intro of ‘Rosa Parks’ by OutKast. 

Musical copyright infringement cases are notoriously difficult to defend, with Marvin Gaye estate’s successful case against Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines‘ being a recent example.

Dua Lipa’s label and management have not commented publicly about either of the lawsuits at the time of writing.