It has been a tough week for Dua Lipa after two fresh copyrights lawsuits against her song “Levitating.”
According to songwriters Sandy Linzer and L. Russell Brown, they claim that “levitating” is a copied song of their “wiggle and giggle all night” produced in 1979 and “do diablo” produced in 1980.
She faced the second copyright lawsuit from the reggae band “Artikal sound system” for a song they produced in 2017, “live your life.” Linzer and brown claimed that the opening melody in their songs and that of “levitating” are the same, implying that she copied the melody for her song.
The complaint about the violation named Warner records and the producers and writers of “Levitating.”
“Lipa admitted that she deliberately emulated prior eras of music to create ‘Future Nostalgia,’ the aptly named album on which ‘Levitating’ appears,” reads the complaint. “In seeking nostalgic inspiration, Defendants copied Plaintiffs’ creation without attribution.”
The lawsuits might serve as a blow to Dua lipa if her song duplicates the named songs. Lizer and brown want Lipa to pay $150,000.
The lawsuit document seeks to prohibit “further reproduction, sale, performance, or other use of ‘Levitating’; and a complete accounting of all net profits made in connection with the creation, marketing, sale and other exploitations of the song.”
According to Linzer and brown’s attorney, the two songwriters are legendary and argued that they wrote and produced great music of “Rock and Roll.”
He added that they aim to make sure that artists pay the proper homage to those artists that preceded them.
“Artikal sound system” claims that the profits from “levitating” belong to them, and they should be rightfully paid the profits from the song. They are seeking a jury trial.
“Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ earned the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s 2021 year-end Hot 100 Songs chart after spending 68 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart,” according to Billboard.
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