DUA LIPA CLEARED: COURT THROWS OUT LAWSUIT OVER RIP-OFF CLAIMS

Dua Lipa scored a legal win on Thursday as a Manhattan federal judge tossed out a lawsuit claiming her 2021 smash “Levitating” ripped off a 1979 disco track. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer failed to prove “substantial similarity” between their tune “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” and Lipa’s chart-topper, despite some audible echoes.

Brown and Linzer argued “Levitating” nabbed its “signature melody” from “Wiggle” and another of their copyrighted songs. But Failla shot down the claim, citing a recent appeals court ruling that Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” didn’t infringe Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” She deemed the melody too basic for protection and noted other alleged overlaps—like a “pop with a disco feel”—were generic, popping up in Mozart operas, Gilbert and Sullivan works, and even the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.”

“Protecting a musical style or function like ‘entertainment and dancing’ would choke off new music in that genre,” Failla wrote. The plaintiffs, undeterred, vowed to appeal. “This is about defending original songwriting,” said their lawyer Jason Brown, nephew of L. Russell Brown.

Lipa’s team, including Warner Records, didn’t comment but had called it far-fetched that the 29-year-old star ever heard “Wiggle,” arguing the minor scale at issue is music’s bread and butter. Brown, known for “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” and Linzer, behind Four Seasons hits, couldn’t sway the court. “Levitating,” from “Future Nostalgia,” ruled Billboard’s 2021 year-end chart.