(MENAFN- Gulf Times)
British pop star Dua Lipa is facing lawsuits in two separate U.S. courts after other artists accused her of copying from their songs for her hit 'Levitating.'
Songwriters Sandy Linzer and L. Russell Brown said Friday in Manhattan federal court that Lipa's song copies the 'signature melody' of their 1979 song 'Wiggle and Giggle All Night.'
Florida group Artikal Sound System on Tuesday sued Lipa in Los Angeles federal court, claiming 'Levitating' copies from their song 'Live Your Life.'
Billboard named 'Levitating' song of the year for 2021 after it spent over 40 weeks in the top ten of its Hot 100 singles chart, peaking at number two.
Representatives for Lipa did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Brown and Linzer's publishing companies sued Lipa and her label Warner Records for infringing their copyrights in 'Wiggle and Giggle All Night,' which Cory Daye recorded in 1979, and 'Don Diablo,' a related song recorded by Miguel Bosé in 1980.
The songwriters have also written for musicians including the Four Seasons, the Four Tops, and the Partridge Family.
Their Friday complaint said 'Levitating' copies the descending melody of 'Wiggle and Giggle,' citing a TikTok video that noted their similarities and has hundreds of thousands of views and likes. The complaint said Lipa and her co-writers turned to disco songs like 'Wiggle and Giggle' for inspiration while making 'Levitating' and her album 'Future Nostalgia.'
Brown and Linzer's attorney Jason Brown of Brown LLC said Monday that his clients want 'the artists of today to properly pay homage to the greats that preceded them.'
Members of reggae band Artikal Sound System said last week that 'Levitating' also copied from their 2017 song 'Live Your Life,' which they said reached number two on Billboard's reggae chart that year.
The lawsuit said the two songs are similar enough that it was 'highly unlikely' that Lipa and her songwriters created 'Levitating' without taking from 'Live Your Life.'
The group's lawsuit does not specifically say which part of 'Live Your Life' Dua Lipa copied. Its attorneys didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The cases are Cope v. Warner Records Inc, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:22-cv-01384; Larball Publishing Co v. Lipa, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
For Artikal Sound System: Stewart Levy of Eisenberg Hefler & Levy, Robert Besser of the Law Offices of Robert Besser
For Brown and Linzer: Jason Brown of Brown LLC
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