Singers Life

Dua Lipa was sued earlier this year by the band Artikal Sound System, claiming that she derived her song 'Levitating' from their 2017 song 'Live Your Life.' A federal judge stated they had serious doubts about charging Dua Lipa with copyright infringement from an unpopular reggae track. Most recently, US District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes said no one involved in creating 'Levitating' had “access” to the reggae song. “Access” to a song in question is a pivotal requirement in any copyright lawsuit. The band argued that their song was so widely-played that writers must have heard the tune and incorporated it subconsciously. However, Judge Sykes responded that those arguments were “too generic or too insubstantial” to sustain the lawsuit. The case was dismissed. "Plaintiff’s failure to specify how frequently they performed 'Live Your Life' publicly during a specific period, precludes the Court from finding that Plaintiffs' live performances of the song plausibly contributed to its saturation of markets in which Defendants would have encountered it," - Sunshine S. Sykes, US District Judge. But it’s not over. The judge ruled that Artikal Sound System could try to fix the errors she had identified and refile an amended complaint. Artikal Sound System is a reggae band from South Florida, founded in 2012. The band released 'Live Your Life' on their 2017 EP Smoke and Mirrors. 'Levitating' was released in 2020 on Dua Lipa's second album, Future Nostalgia, where it spent 77 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.