Dua Lipa is trying to wiggle out of another lawsuit over “Levitating.” The Grammy-winning singer was sued by songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who claim she copied parts of their 1979 single “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” and their 1980 song “Don Diablo.”
Rolling Stone reports Dua’s attorney, Christine Lepera, petitioned Judge Katherine Polk Failla to dismiss the suit.
Linzer and Brown argue “Levitating” is “substantially similar” to their songs, adding it copies the “signature melody” and “compositional elements” of their tracks.
Lepera claims those elements are commonplace in music and cannot be protected. “The alleged similarities — a descending scale in which each pitch is repeated on evenly spaced notes, and a common clave rhythm — are unprotectable, and the result of the coincidental use of basic musical building blocks,” she argued.
Lepera also argued neither Dua, nor her song collaborators, would have heard or come across Brown and Linzer’s songs prior to writing “Levitating” because they’re obscure. She says Brown and Linzer’s suit “fails to plausibly allege a particular chain of events leading to access.”
“With respect to ‘Wiggle,’ the complaint merely alleges it achieved certain success in the Netherlands four decades ago. This does not establish ‘saturation,’ and there is no allegation that the songwriters of ‘Levitating’ were in the Netherlands — or, indeed, had even been born — at that time,” Lepera continued.
She made similar comparisons to “Diablo,” which “has been performed at certain times in Latin America.”
Both songs are available on streaming, but she argues they’re competing with “many millions of musical recordings.”
Lepera adds “Diablo” wasn’t registered with the U.S. Copyright Office prior to the suit being filed and argued, “A complaint that fails to do so must be dismissed.”
Polk Failla has not yet ruled on the matter.
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