The renowned British singer Dua Lipa and her music label, Warner Records, successfully persuaded a federal court in Los Angeles to throw out a copyright infringement lawsuit on Monday. A Florida-based reggae band, Artikal Sound System, filed the case, which alleged that Lipa’s chart-topping song “Levitating” plagiarized one of its songs.
The U.S. District Judge, Sunshine Sykes, expressed that Artikal Sound System didn’t provide substantial arguments to prove that the creators of “Levitating” had exposure to their 2017 song “Live Your Life.”
Even though Judge Sykes allowed the band to submit a revised complaint, she denied their request to shift their case to New York. This would have paired their lawsuit with another infringement complaint against “Levitating” by songwriters Sandy Linzer and L. Russell Brown, which argues the song bears a resemblance to their disco tunes, “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” and “Don Diablo.”
The band’s attorney, Stewart Levy, expressed dissatisfaction with Tuesday’s court ruling and mentioned that the band is contemplating its next course of action. Representatives for Lipa did not immediately issue a comment in response.
Lipa’s “Levitating” successfully ran on Billboard’s Hot 100 U.S. singles chart for 77 weeks, with a peak position of No. 2 in 2021.
The original complaint lodged in 2022 suggested that the creation of “Levitating” was “improbable” to have been independent, pointing to perceived similarities in the melody, harmony, and other elements of the two songs.
However, Judge Sykes sided with Lipa on Monday, agreeing that the lawsuit from Artikal Sound System failed to provide sufficient evidence to show that the accused could have come across their song before the creation of “Levitating.”
Artikal Sound System highlighted that they performed “Live Your Life” at several concerts, made it available on streaming platforms, and sold a few hundred CDs featuring the song. Despite these efforts, Judge Sykes ruled that the distribution wasn’t extensive enough to convincingly argue that the creators of “Levitating” could have potentially heard and plagiarized it.
Dua Lipa’s victory over this copyright infringement lawsuit marks another chapter in the ongoing saga of such claims within the music industry. Despite the setbacks, Artikal Sound System is mulling over its next steps in response to the court’s decision. Meanwhile, “Levitating” maintains its position as one of Lipa’s most successful tracks, seemingly untouched by the legal allegations.
