Dua Lipa cleared of allegations in 'Levitating' lawsuit

Dua Lipa won the dismissal on Thursday of a lawsuit in Manhattan accusing the British pop star of copying her 2021 megahit "Levitating" from a 1979 disco song.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer failed to show "substantial similarity" between "Levitating" and their song "Wiggle and Giggle All Night," though some listeners could hear similarities.

The plaintiffs alleged that "Levitating" copied its "signature melody" from "Wiggle" and another song to which they held a copyright.

However, the judge found the melody unprotectable in light of November's federal appeals court decision that Ed Sheeran's 2014 song "Thinking Out Loud" did not illegally copy Marvin Gaye's classic "Let's Get It On."

British singer-songwriter Dua Lipa arrives on January 28, 2025, to attend a photocall ahead of the Chanel Women's Haute-Couture Spring/Summer 2025 collection as part of the Fashion Week in Paris. Photo by Julie SEBADELHA / AFP

Failla also found several other alleged similarities between "Levitating" and "Wiggle" were commonplace, having appeared in Mozart and Rossini operas, Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees.

"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," Failla wrote.

To hold otherwise, she said, would "completely foreclose the further development of music in that genre or for that purpose."

Jason Brown, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said they plan to appeal.

"This case has always been about standing up for the enduring value of original songwriting," Brown, who is L. Russell Brown's nephew, said in an email.

CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 19: (L-R) InducteeCher and Dua Lipa perform onstage during the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony streaming on Disney+ at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on October 19, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame/AFP

Lawyers for Lipa, her label Warner Records, and other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

They called it implausible to believe Lipa, 29, heard "Wiggle" before writing "Levitating." They said the plaintiffs could not "monopolize one of the most commonplace and rudimentary elements of music: the use of a minor scale."

Brown's other songs include Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" and "Knock Three Times," while Linzer's songs include the Four Seasons' "Let's Hang On!" and "Working My Way Back To You."

"Levitating," from Lipa's album "Future Nostalgia," was the No. 1 song on Billboard's 2021 year-end chart.