Dua Lipa has won the copyright case over her song ‘Levitating’.
The 29-year-old singer had been accused by songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer of ripping of their 1979 song ‘Wiggle and Giggle All Night’ on her 2020 single, but on Thursday (27.03.25), US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed their lawsuit after ruling there was not a “substantial similarity” between the two tracks.
The judge cited a ruling from last year which established Ed Sheeran hadn’t ripped off Marvin Gaye and noted both ‘Levitating’ and ‘Wiggle and Giggle All Night’ had similarities to music from a wide range of artists, including Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan, Gioachino Rossini and the Bee Gees.
The judge wrote: “The Court finds that a musical style, defined by Plaintiffs as ‘pop with a disco feel,’ and a musical function, defined by Plaintiffs to include ‘entertainment and dancing,’ cannot possibly be protectable — alone or in tandem — because … [that would] completely foreclose the further development of music in that genre or for that purpose.”
The two songwriters – who had also claimed ‘Levitating’ incorporated parts of ‘Don Diablo’, a 1980 Miguel Bose song to which they own the copyright – “respectfully disagree” with the court’s ruling and are planning to appeal, their lawyer Jason T. Brown told People magazine.
He also said in a statement: “This case has always been about standing up for the enduring value of original songwriting, and we continue to believe in the strength of Mr. Brown and Mr. Linzer’s creative legacy.
“Even the defense expert acknowledged that people can hear the similarities between ‘Don Diablo’ and ‘Levitating’. But under recent case law — including the Structured Asset Sales v. Sheeran decision — courts have become increasingly focused on what can be dissected and filtered out on paper, rather than what is felt through the music itself.
“There’s a growing disconnect between how these cases are decided — by academically analysing briefs, bar lines, and musical notation — versus how audiences actually experience music. The soul of a song doesn’t live in a court brief. It lives in the sound, the feel, and the performance — and that’s what juries should be allowed to hear and judge.”