Dua Lipa’s lawyers are fighting back against the ‘Levitating’ lawsuit, citing “coincidental use of basic music building blocks” which are “unprotected.” They are also firing back to say that the plaintiffs’ track ‘Don Diablo’ was not registered with the US Copyright Office before the lawsuit, therefore claiming the case should be dismissed.
The case was filed in March 2022 with two songwriters, Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer alleging that Lipa duplicated the signature opening melody for her song “Levitating” from their 1979 track ‘Wiggle and a Giggle All Night’ and 1980 song ‘Don Diablo.’ They argued that this was intentional due to Lipa emulating previous eras for her album Future Nostalgia.
The court filings from Lipa’s defence team state that she and her songwriting team had never heard the pair of disco tracks listed in the copyright lawsuit against her song ‘Levitating.’ The filings then state that even if she had, the aspects claimed to be infringed upon are simple musical building blocks.
Furthermore, the defence team argued that the plaintiffs “fails to plausibly allege a particular chain of events leading to access” arguing that the “mere availability” of the two songs being available on streaming sites was not enough evidence considering the “many millions of musical recordings.”
This is not the first lawsuit that Dua Lipa has faced for Levitating. A week prior, Florida reggae band Artikal Sound System filed a complaint in Los Angeles accusing Lipa of copying their track ‘Live Your Life.’
Lipa has until November 12, 2022 to respond to the complaint.
More to follow on this story.
