Dua Lipa Allegedly Stole 'Levitating' From Florida-Based Reggae Band

Dua Lipa is being sued for allegedly copying her 2020 hit song “Levitating” from a reggae band.

In a short complaint filed in the Los Angeles federal court Wednesday, Florida-based reggae band Artikal Sound System claimed that the track was “substantially similar” to their 2017 song “Live Your Life.”

The band claimed the similarity was too obvious it was “highly unlikely that 'Levitating' was created independently.” They further claimed that the singer had access to their original song, although they did not detail in the complaint how she or her co-writers, Clarence Coffee, Jr., Sarah Hudson and Stephen Kozmeniuk, had accessed it.

The lawsuit alleged that Lipa and her label “listened to and copied ‘Live Your Life’ before and during the time when they were writing ‘Levitating,’” and the extent of its resemblance to his song signifies “copyright infringement.”

Aside from Lipa, Artikal Sound System also named Lipa’s label, Warner Records, among the defendants and sought profits from the song on top of monetary compensation.

“Levitating,” which is featured in Lipa’s second album, “Future Nostalgia,” was a major hit in 2020. The song reached No. 5 on the U.K. singles charts and No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 that year. Having spent 68 weeks on the songs chart, the song was also recognized as the longest-running Top 10 hit by a female artist in 2020 and has been streamed more than 446 million times on Spotify since its release.

Due to its huge collective sales and radio numbers, “Levitating” finished as Billboard’s No. 1 song of 2021 in the U.S. and was nominated for “Song of the Year” at the 2021 MTV VMAs.

Meanwhile, Artikal Sound System was formed in 2012 and the band released its second album, “EP Smoke and Mirrors,” in 2017 which featured “Live Your Life.” The song is currently not on Spotify but has been played 34,000 times on SoundCloud.