A reggae band from Florida are taking legal action against Dua Lipa, claiming her No. 1 single Levitating plagiarises a track released in 2017.
Florida five-piece Artikal Sound System are hitting Dua Lipa with a lawsuit because they believe the British pop star’s 2020 hit Levitating is a carbon copy of one of their own tracks.
The song in question is Artikal Sound System’s 2017 single Live Your Life, with the reggae outfit arguing that it’s “highly unlikely that Levitating was created independently”.
Look, we’re not convinced that Dua Lipa’s team intentionally copied a relatively unknown reggae outfit from Florida, but there’s no denying that the two songs sound awfully similar.
Dua Lipa when she's told that a white reggae band is suing her for stealing Levitating from thempic.twitter.com/s8SapWNnAp
— pula | RADICAL OPTIMISM May 3rd (@doulapeps_) March 3, 2022
Dua was also accused of plagiarism on her track Break My Heart, which bears resemblance to INXS’ Need You Tonight. As soon as this was brought to light, the pop star included Andrew Farris and Michael Hutchins to the songwriting credits, but maintained any similarities were coincidental.
Artikal Sound System are hoping to claim any profits Dua Lipa has received from Levitating, plus damages. But regardless of whether the band receive any royalties from the lawsuit, they’ve won themselves some invaluable publicity. The track was only uploaded to YouTube yesterday as news of the lawsuit emerged, and the video has already been viewed more than 300,000 times.
Have a listen to the tracks below and see for yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4dBufC9Igk
