Dua Lipa will have to go to court for a third time over her hit song Levitating.
A judge in New York ruled that the British pop star must face a lawsuit accusing her of copying her 2021 megahit from a 1979 disco song.
US District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer could try to prove “substantial similarity” between Levitating and their song Wiggle and Giggle All Night.
The lawsuit, filed in March last year, claimed that Levitating shared “compositional elements” with Wiggle, most significantly by duplicating its opening melody.
Lipa’s lawyers argued that it was implausible to believe that the 27-year-old had heard Wiggle before writing Levitating.
Judge Failla agreed, but said the plaintiffs alleged “just enough facts” to argue that the songs were so “strikingly similar,” including by sharing a “repetitive rhythm” and “signature melody,” that Lipa must have copied theirs.
“The court cannot foreclose the possibility of plaintiffs meeting the undoubtedly high bar of proving striking similarity,” Failla wrote.
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In a statement, Jason Brown, a lawyer for Brown and Linzer, said they “have great respect for the artists of today but if their material is used there must be proper attribution and compensation.
