Dua Lipa has won the second plagiar law that he received in 2022 for the alleged resemblance of ‘Levitating’ with two songs published during the Glory of Disco Music, a musical era that inspired the sound of his second album, ‘Future Nostalgia’ (2020).
Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, composers of ‘Wiggle & a Giggle All Night’, a 1979 song popularized by Cory Daye, and its adaptation to Spanish, ‘Don Diablo’ by Miguel Bosé, published in 1980, accused Dua Lipa of having copied both songs in ‘Levitating’. Specifically, they defended that the initial melody of ‘levitating’ was a “duplicate” of the melodies they wrote in those pieces.
However, a judge from New York has failed in favor of Dua Lipa. Magistrate Katherine Polk Failla has dismissed Brown’s demand and Linzer arguing that the “descending scale” used in the three songs is too common to constitute plagiarism. In addition, he has cited the previous case of Ed Sheeran and Marvin Gaye to justify that “a progression of chords and a harmonious rhythm, combined, cannot constitute an expression to protect under the copyright law.”
The first complaint to Dua Lipa for an alleged plagiarism of ‘Levitating’ faced the British with the reggae band Artikal Sound System and dismissed in 2023.
Dua Lipa reissued today ‘Future Nostalgia’ for its fifth anniversary. On platforms, the unpublished duet of ‘Physical’ with Troye Sivan is already available.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nzex2g3ha8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuvczfqe-kw
