Dua Lipa wins in court: ‘Levitating’ infringement case from Florida reggae group dismissed

Dua Lipa claimed victory in the court room — for now.

Grammy-winning “Don’t Start Now” singer, alongside songwriters Clarence Coffee Jr., Sarah Hudson and Stephen Kozmeniuk plus Warner Records, had a win when a federal court in Los Angeles dropped a lawsuit that claimed Lipa had copied a Florida reggae group Artikal Sound System’s song in her popular track “Levitating,” according to the order granting Lipa’s motion to dismiss on Monday.

The group had alleged that Lipa’s “Levitating” violated their copyright for 2017 song “Live Your Life.”

U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes found that Artikal Sound System could not prove that “Levitating” writers had seen or heard the song despite the group’s claims. Artikal Sound System said the song is on streaming services, was played during live performances in Florida and that they sold “several hundred” compact discs – which wasn’t enough to convince Sykes.

Sykes also granted the group the option to file a new amended complaint by June 16, according to the order.

Artikal Sound System is based out of South Florida and was founded in 2012 by Chris Montague and Fabian Acuña. The group alleged they were owed profits from “Levitating” in addition to damages and were demanding a jury trial in their 2022 court documents.

Lipa was facing a double whammy of copyright infringement lawsuits over her hit song. In addition to Artikal Sound System, songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer claimed last year she copied their 1979 song “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” and the 1980 song “Don Diablo,” the latter of which they acquired the copyright for after filing a similar claim of infringement. The case remains ongoing and also names rapper DaBaby, who recorded on Lipa’s “Levitating” remix, as a defendant.

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.

Contributing: Rasha Ali