Dua Lipa has emerged victorious!
The renowned pop star has successfully defeated the lawsuit alleging that her 2020 hit, “Levitating,” was plagiarized.
However, the legal team representing the songwriters who accused Lipa of infringement intends to appeal, stating to Law360 that there’s a “growing disconnect” in how courts evaluate song theft allegations.
Jason Brown, the attorney, argued that this case exemplifies a trend that hinders songwriters from pursuing legal action when their work is incorporated into new songs by other artists.
He asserted that judges become overly focused on “academically analyzing briefs, bar lines, and musical notation,” rather than considering “how audiences genuinely experience music.”
Brown proposed that instead of a judge, juries, who are better equipped to determine if two songs are “strikingly similar,” should be the decision-makers.
“The essence of a song doesn’t reside in a court brief,” he stated, adding, “It exists in the sound, the feel, and the performance – and that’s what juries should be allowed to hear and judge.”
For context, Dua Lipa was accused by L Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer, who claimed that “Levitating” was copied from their 1979 track, “Wiggle And Giggle All Night.”
