This marks the third time Dua Lipa faces copyright claims over her song 'Levitating'.
ADVERTISEMENTDua Lipa is facing a new federal lawsuit in Los Angeles from music producer and musician Bosko Kante, who claims the Albanian-British pop star and her label Warner Music Group never received his permission to include his "talk box" recording in remixes of her hit song 'Levitating'.
The talk box is a wearable device that makes vocal vibrations sound like musical instruments.
Kante, who composed original melodies and lyrics for his part in the song (one of Dua Lipa's most popular tracks from her 2020 album 'Future Nostalgia') said in the lawsuit that the use of his performance on three remixes of Lipa's hit song infringed his copyright. He claims that he and producers "explicitly agreed" verbally that his work would not be re-used in samples of the song or otherwise by Dua Lipa or Warner Music.
One of the three remixes of 'Levitating' includes the remix featuring rapper DaBaby. This version has become the most successful version, with 768 million views of the song’s video on YouTube, and over 1.8 billion streams on Spotify.
Kante is seeking at least $2 million (€1.8 million) in damages, $20 million (€18.2 million) in lost profits and attorneys fees.
Dua Lipa and her label Warner Music Group have not responded to the claims.
Repeat (alleged) offender
This is not the first time Dua Lipa, who is currently in the charts with her song 'Dance the Night Away' on the Barbie soundtrack, has faced copyright claims over 'Levitating'.
In March 2022, a band called Artikal Sound System filed a lawsuit alleging that 'Levitating' is “substantially similar” to their track 'Live Your Life'. That lawsuit was dismissed in June, with US District Judge Sunshine Sykes concluding that Artikal Sound System had failed to argue that the writers of 'Levitating' ever had access to the group's 2017 song.
In another lawsuit, songwriters Sandy Linzer and L. Russell Brown claimed that Dua Lipa ripped off their song from 1979, called 'Wiggle and Giggle All Night'. This claim continues.
'Levitating' is one of the biggest hit songs of recent years. It holds the record for longest-charting song by a female artist on the US Billboard 100, having spent 77 weeks on the chart in 2020 and 2021.
