Dua Lipa had a major hit with a remix of her 2020 Future Nostalgia track “Levitating” featuring the now-cancelled rapper DaBaby. Although it peaked at #2, the song spent 41 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the #1 song of 2021 and the longest-running top-10 hit by a lead female artist. And now, a reggae band from Florida is suing her over it.

 

TMZ reports that a band called Artikal Sound System have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Dua Lipa, claiming that “Levitating” is a ripoff of their 2017 track “Live Your Life.” They’re also naming Dua Lipa’s label, Warner Records, and others as defendants, and they’re asking for profits they may have made off of “Levitating” plus damages.

 

You can listen to both songs below; for what it’s worth, the chorus to “Live Your Life” does sound a whole lot like “Levitating.”

Sauce

 

Here is the original song: https://soundcloud.com/artikal-sound-system...-live-your-life

 

To be honest, they definitely have a case. :unsure:

Edited March 28Mar 28 by Juan Carlos

damn it’s so similar

Wow, they sound the same :o

Dua Mafia is coming for them x

 

hmm there's definitely enough similarities here to warrant some sort of settlement - no way this one is just coincidence

The song has like only 100 plays on SoundCloud so I doubt it was deliberate. There's so many songs with similar chord progressions out there. The timing of this is also shady with the song having totally blown up and Dua leaving her management.

I often wonder why it takes people so long to file these lawsuits, I mean this song has been around for two years now.

I often wonder why it takes people so long to file these lawsuits, I mean this song has been around for two years now.

I think the idea is that they can claim more in damages if they sue long after the songs already been a big hit

gash

 

This!!

 

Big gash

I didn’t expect it to sound so similar.

The Hollywood Reporter: Poor Dua Is Hit With ANOTHER Copyright Lawsuit Over “Levitating” :o

 

Dua Lipa is facing a second copyright lawsuit over her smash hit song “Levitating,” this time claiming she lifted material from a pair of decades-old disco tracks.

 

In a complaint filed Friday in Manhattan federal court, songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer accused Lipa of copying their 1979 song “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” and 1980 song “Don Diablo.” They said the opening melody to “Levitating” was a “duplicate” of the melody to their songs.

 

“Defendants have levitated away plaintiffs’ intellectual property,” lawyers for Brown and Linzer wrote in their complaint. “Plaintiffs bring suit so that defendants cannot wiggle out of their willful infringement.”

 

The new case came just days after Lipa was hit with a different copyright lawsuit over “Levitating” — a massive hit that has spent 68 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. In that one, a Florida reggae band named Artikal Sound System claimed the British pop star had copied a little-known 2017 track called “Live Your Life.”

 

In the newer lawsuit, Brown and Linzer pointed to press interviews in which they said Lipa had “admitted that she deliberately emulated prior eras” and “took inspiration” from earlier music to create a “retro” sound.

 

“In seeking nostalgic inspiration, defendants copied plaintiffs’ creation without attribution,” the pair of accusers wrote in their lawsuit. The case also named as defendants Warner Music Group, DaBaby, and others involved in the song.

 

“Levitating,” released in 2020 on Lipa’s second studio album, Future Nostalgia, peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and was named the No. 1 Hot 100 song for 2021. It’s also the longest-running top 10 song ever by a female artist on the chart.

 

The new lawsuit claims that the “signature melody” from the beginning of “Levitating” — starting just a few seconds into the song when Lipa begins singing, “If you wanna run away with me…” — copied a similar portion of the earlier songs. And the accusers said that section of the song, repeated multiple times, was particularly important because it had helped turn “Levitating” into a viral sensation on TikTok.

 

“The signature melody is the most listened to and recognizable part of the infringing works and plays a crucial role in their popularity,” attorneys for Brown and Linzer wrote. “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.”

 

A rep for Dua Lipa did not immediately return Billboard‘s request for comment.

 

They sound similar, indeed.

 

Edited March 6, 20223 yr by Voodoo

The song has like only 100 plays on SoundCloud so I doubt it was deliberate. There's so many songs with similar chord progressions out there. The timing of this is also shady with the song having totally blown up and Dua leaving her management.

 

Might be a case of the demo being sent around and eventually getting to her management/producers though...

An interesting take on the Artikal Sound System case.

 

@1499071129473880066

 

in beginning of that Don Diablo song I also hear Assereje (Con la luna en las pupilas y su traje agua marina, Van restos de contrabano), which makes me wonder now if Levitating copies Assereje as well :o lol.

The Hollywood Reporter: Poor Dua Is Hit With ANOTHER Copyright Lawsuit Over “Levitating” :o

They sound similar, indeed.

 

This one is a reach imo.

 

"Defendants have levitated away plaintiffs’ intellectual property,” lawyers for Brown and Linzer wrote in their complaint.

 

LMAO.

that's beyond a reach,

I know the Don Diablo song very well, it's quite popular in Spain cos Miguel Bose ws huge in the 80s,

and never thought about it when hearing Levitating, not even once

@1530247518382170119

@1592887138776887297

 

Let them KNOW :clap:

Dua Lipa has won her ‘Levitating’ copyright case.

 

The judge ruled that the reggae band suing her, Artikal Sound System, failed to prove that Dua and the creators of the song had access to their track ‘Live Your Life,’ prompting them to drop the lawsuit.

Dua Lipa will be happy to have that concluded.