Dua Lipa’s “Levitating”: Music video, achievements, lawsuit and more

[Bigno]

On 3/1/2022 at 11:58 PM, Rik said:

Ok. But it actually does sound like it and u guys are so crazily unfair to indie and international artists…. I legitimately agree w them about this after hearing the song wtf

Thank you.

It is a freaking ripoff. I read comments and they defend stealing. I just can't.

[Bigno]

On 3/2/2022 at 11:38 AM, Stefani said:

Beyonce inspiring all the new pop girls.

 

Even that video seems highly inspired by Toxic

[jordeezy river red]

I swear I heard a song like this before Dua's. IDK what song it is that I am thinking of but I know I have 

[danduni]

I’m just wondering why they didn’t sue earlier just after the release of future nostalgia. But they sound similar.

 

Anyways, Dua… 

[MasterMindz]

On 3/2/2022 at 11:18 AM, LostAvenger said:

Thoughts on Wildest Dreams chorus being 'inspired' from Without you by Lana then 

Huge difference between inspiration and "inspiration" (i.e. copy pasting) darling  

 

 

[MasterMindz]

14 hours ago, LostAvenger said:

I know music theory as well

Seems like you only know about hating on Taylor 

[Bambas]

I've played the reggae song first. My 7yo started saying "no, this isn't the correct one!" and started singing over Dua Lipa's song. When I played the second video and Dua started singing my kid says "This is the one".

Even a 7yo can see the ripoff. 

[Moscow]

6 hours ago, maki93 said:

Seems like you only know about hating on Taylor 

people are too serious here, 

i din't hate her 😡

[PokemonSpears]

On 3/2/2022 at 2:05 AM, MortalMarshmallow said:

On a similar note: I have heard it is legal to steal other people’s lyrics for your own product as long as you don’t steal over 30 percent of the lyrics of the song. You heard that too or is it just me? 

so a new lawsuit is actually addressing Don Diablo its impact

Quote

The new lawsuit includes musical notation as evidence that “Levitating” is similar to both “Wiggle and Giggle” and “Don Diablo.” “It is apparent that all three iterations of the melody are substantially similar,” the lawsuit states. “The notes move in the same direction with evenly matched intervals or ‘steps,’ and almost identical rhythms.” The lawsuit also cites an interview with Dua Lipa where she admits she credited INXS on the Future Nostalgia song “Break My Heart” to avoid potential litigation.

Rolling Stone article

 

Although I don't understand if Miguel Bosé is getting sued too, or they're demanding Dua to give credit both to this Wiggle and Giggle song, AND Don Diablo.

 

 

Edit: Oh I see now, Don Diablo is the Spanish adaptation of Wiggle and Giggle, and it does credit the English songwriter.

[Spicechinodiva]

She is going to lose, but like somebody posted, the blurred lines lawsuit actually allowed this to happen. 

 

Everybody can claim copyright infringement and get some money now just to chord structures which in pop music is always borrowed somewhere, but normally tweaked but The blurred lines lawsuit made sure chord structures and other common stuff can be used in court now. 

[RadicalOptimism]

On 3/2/2022 at 12:12 AM, PokemonSpears said:

somewhat similar? it sounds practically the same, the original just being slower than Dua's

For less than this, Exhalers kept saying Britney's Now That I Found You was a Wake Me Up ripoff, which were NOTHING alike, not even the same melody or rhythm or anything.

 

That said, they would have to see if Dua actually did the sampling properly. For example, when Jerry Rivera accused Shakira of stealing his song for the intro of Hips Don't Lie, he was unaware that the record label had actually obtained the rights to the song legally.

I ignore this group or whether they belong to a record label or not, but this is far from being a coincidence. It could also be that they are sampling maybe an even older song, and they're thieves too. The melody actually seems to be very common or generic, since some parts of Levitating also sound like the exact melody of the verses of an 80's song by Spanish singer Miguel Bosé, but I doubt Dua or her producers would know this song, though everything is possible. Curiously, the song I talk about is called Don Diablo, and conveniently she ended up releasing a Don Diablo Remix that has nothing to do with that, and now that's what comes up when you Google "Levitating Don Diablo"

 

Except Now That I Found You is a Wake Me Up ripoff. It instantly came to mind when I first heard the song 

[PokemonSpears]

1 minute ago, CrazyButItFeelsAllright said:

Except Now That I Found You is a Wake Me Up ripoff. It instantly came to mind when I first heard the song 

being a same style (folktronica or whatever they call it) doesn't make it a ripoff though. The melody or the actual notes of the songs have nothing to do with each other, unlike Levitating with all the mentioned songs for which she's being sued, for example, which follow the same musical structure or whatever is the right terminology.

And actually, doing some research, even though Wikipedia doesn't mention it, because I guess it's not credited on the liner notes, on the topic video of NTIFY they do credit Mike Einziger (guitarist from Incubus) as composer, lyricist, and he happens to be the co-writer of Wake Me Up, so I guess that's where the influence comes from.

So if any it would be more of a case like how many Max Martin songs from the 90's sound very similar, because they're done by the same person around the same time.

[Megan Fox.]

Who did it better though? 

[RadicalOptimism]

I doubt any of these people heard of this flop song, but coincidences will undoubtedly exist. I’m curious why it took this long after the song reached massive success to say something 

[Cqleb]

Dua has retained Christine Lepera and her law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp to represent her in both lawsuits, court records show, including one filed in New York that claims she ripped off a 1979 disco track, and another in California that claims she stole material from a 2017 reggae song.

songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer accuse Dua Lipa of copying a 1979 song called “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” with melody in Levitating that starts when Lipa begins singing, “If you wanna run away with me…” They call that portion of her song a “duplicate” of their own.

Florida reggae band named Artikal Sound System claims that Dua lifted the core hook for her song from their 2015 “Live Your Life,” arguing that two are so similar that it was “highly unlikely that ‘Levitating’ was created independently.”

The new cases Dua Lipa is facing will likely deal with similar issues as the “Dark Horse” case against Katy Perry  about the limits of copyright protection for music. The earlier song might sound like “Levitating,” but Lipa’s legal team is likely to argue that both songs merely contain common musical tropes that aren’t covered by copyrights and that Dua was free to use when she created her new song.

 

[Jordan Miller]

Good! Sick of silly lawsuits coming from all directions