Dua Lipa has successfully defended herself against a lawsuit claiming she plagiarized her hit single Levitating from two other songs.
In 2022, songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer sued the pop star, alleging she had copied elements of their 1979 disco track Wiggle and Giggle All Night and the 1980 song Don Diablo.
However, on Thursday, U.S. Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that the similarities between the songs were generic, citing non-copyrightable musical elements that have also been used in works by Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the Bee Gees in Stayin' Alive.
This marks the second time Lipa has won a plagiarism case involving Levitating, which became a global hit in 2020. She was previously sued by the Florida-based reggae band Artikal Sound System, who accused her of copying the chorus of their 2015 track Live Your Life.
However, their case was dismissed in 2023 after a judge ruled there was no evidence Lipa and her co-writers had "access" to the earlier song, which is a key factor in any copyright case.
Lipa is still facing a third lawsuit over Levitating, filed by musician Bosko Kante, who was a featured artist on the track. Kante, who provided vocals through a talk box, claims his contribution was used in remixes of the song without his permission.
He is seeking damages of at least $2 million, plus interest, as well as a share of the profits from the remixes, which he estimates at $20 million.
Brown and Linzer's lawsuit argued that Lipa had copied the opening melody of Levitating, in which she sings: "If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy and I can take you for a ride."
They claimed the melody and phrasing were identical to their own songs. However, Judge Failla ruled that these musical elements were too common to be protected by copyright.
"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," the judge wrote. "To hold otherwise would be to completely foreclose the further development of music in that genre or for that purpose."
Coincidentally, the ruling came on the fifth anniversary of Levitating's release, which initially appeared as an album track on Lipa's award-winning album Future Nostalgia.
In a statement to Billboard, lawyers for Brown and Linzer said they "respectfully disagreed" with the decision and planned to file an appeal. The BBC has reached out to Dua Lipa for comment.
