If you are thinking of writing a song, take a listen to a silly-titled song called "Wiggle and Giggle All Night (Wiggle)" first. If you even accidentally come close to sounding like the 1979 disco tune, you could get sued, just as Dua Lipa is being currently, by the song's writers, L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer. Brown and Linzer have sued over copyright infringement before as well.
Dua Lipa put out an album in 2020 called Levitating which produced a single with the same title. The persons given credit for the "Levitating" single is Dua Lipa along with Sarah Hudson and Stephen Kozmeniuk. Each of those three shares the copyright for "Levitating."
The suit brought by Brown and Lizner has been simmering for a while, but this week U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said that Brown and Lizner have proved that their "Wiggle..." song and Dua Lipa's "Levitating" track sound similar enough to move forward with the suit. This doesn't mean that Dua Lipa, along with Kozmeniuk and Hudson are guilty of copyright infringement, though. At least, not yet.
Does Dua Lipa's "Levitating" sound like "Wiggle and Giggle All Night"?
Per Judge Failla's opinion, "Like 'Wiggle' and 'Don Diablo,' 'Levitating' begins with a 'signature melody' that Plaintiffs claim Defendants copied. 'Levitating' also allegedly copies a repetitive rhythm from the prior works."
"Don Diablo" is a song from Miguel Bose from 1980. This also is the track that Brown and Lizner litgated for copyright infringement and Brown and Lizner won that suit. For the record, "Wiggle..." was recorded by Cory Daye but Daye is not part of the current suit.
If you have never heard "Wiggle and Giggle All Night," this is what is sounds like. (You know, so you can pretend you are the one making the decision about whether Dua Lipa copied any of the track.)
And here is the video for "Levitating." (If you haven't heard either song, there do appear to be similarities, but I am not the judge and jury here.)
This isn't the first time Dua Lipa has been sued over the copyright for this song. Artikal Sound System had a suit dismissed after the claimed Dua Lipa stole a part of one of their songs. And Dua Lipa is facing a lawsuit from musician Bosko Kante that Dua Lipa took his "talk box" recording and used it for a "Levitating" remix.