Dua Lipa accused of stealing ‘Levitating’ by Reggae Band

Singer and songwriter Dua Lipa’s smash hit song Levitating is accused of allegedly being a rip-off of a reggae song titled Live Your Life by a Florida band called Artikal Sound System. Members of the reggae band sued the pop star on Tuesday with a copyright infringement allegation. According to them, Lipa’s hit track sounds an “awful lot like” their 2017 song, reported People.

According to the complaint filed in a Los Angeles federal court, the band has been performing and touring together since 2010. About their track Live Your Life, they’ve shared that it “charted at No. 2 on the Billboard reggae chart in 2017.”

The lawsuit also names Warner Records and Lipa’s co-songwriters and producer as defendants alongside Lipa. It accuses all defendants of "listening to and copying Live Your Life before and during the time when they were writing Levitating.”

The complaint, however, does not specify how they believe the song was copied but strongly alleges that Lipa’s song cannot be considered an original one. “Levitating is substantially similar to Live Your Life.” Given the degree of similarity, the band believes that “it is highly unlikely that Levitating was created independently from Live Your Life.”

Neither Lipa nor the Artikal Sound System has given any official comment on the matter following the lawsuit.

Levitating was first released as part of Lipa’s 2020 album Future Nostalgia. A remix of the song was later released featuring rapper DaBaby as well. Being an immediate hit amongst fans, the track peaked at no 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 but topped the Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40 and Mainstream Top 40 charts. It was also the no 1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 Year-End chart.

About the complainant, founded in 2012 by Chris Montague and Fabian Acuña, Artikal Sound System is based out of South Florida according to their website. The band released their latest album Welcome to Florida last month and is expected to kick off their tour in March.

You can listen to both tracks here:

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