British pop star Dua Lipa is being sued by a Florida-based reggae band for alleged copyright infringement over the singer’s hit single “Levitating”.
The band, Artikal Sound System, filed a short complaint in the Los Angeles federal court claiming that Lipa’s 2020 hit song was so similar to their 2017 song – “Live Your Life” – that it was “highly unlikely that Levitating was created independently”.
The similarities are hard to miss with Dua Lipa’s song
Even though Artikal Sound System’s song isn’t available on Spotify and has only recently been uploaded on YouTube, the band claims that Lipa had “access” to their song. They did not, however, detail how the musician or her co-writers would have encountered it.
“Live Your Life” has only been available on SoundCloud since its release and has over 34k plays. And with the story reaching the public, its recent upload to YouTube gained over 12k views in 10 hours – presumably from curious listeners comparing the two songs.
The band is seeking profits from “Levitating” in addition to damages and also named additional parties, such as Warner Records, as defendants.
The song features on Dua Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia, and reached No 2 in the US Billboard Hot 100. From there it became the longest-running Top 10 hit by a female artist. And in addition to that, it has been streamed over 446 million times on Spotify.
Once both songs have been listened to, it’s hard to ignore the similarities in the songs’ production.
While the beat for “Live Your Life” is more relaxed, the same beat is definitely picked up in Lipa’s song.