Finally, to Reason for Sugarboo to Levitate. Dua Lipa Will No Longer Have to Test This She Did Not Rip Off Off L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer's 1979 Disco Song “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” When She and Others Wrote The Monster Hit “Levitating.”
Us District Judge Katherine Polk Failla Dismissed Their Suit in a Manhattan Court on Thursday. The Judge Ruled in a Written statement, reviewed by Rolling StoneThat Lipa's Song Did Not Bear Enough Similarity to “Wiggle and Giggle” for Trial.
Songwriters Brown and Linzer Had Claimed That Lipa Copied the “Wiggle” Melody and Elements of Another Song by the Duo, “Don Diablo.” Judge Failla Cited a Federal Appeals Court decision from Last Year That Ed Sheeran Did Not Plagiarize Marvin Gaye, and that the Melodies in Both “Leviting” and “Wiggle” Also Sounded Similar to Musical Phrases Componed by Wolfgang Mozart, Gioachino Rossini, Gilbert and Sullivan, and the bee gees – Specifically “Stayin 'Alive.”
“The Court Finds That a Musical Style, Defined by Plaintiffs As 'pop with Feel,' and a Musical Function, Defined by Plaintiffs to includes 'Entertainment and Dancing,' Cannot Possibly Be Protectable – Alone or in Tandem – Bicause … [that would] Completely Foreclose The Further Development of Music in that Genre or for That Purpose, “Judge Failla Wrote.
Lipa's Lawyer Had Argued That She and the Other Songwriters “Never Heard” The Song “Wiggle and Giggle” or “Don Diablo.” “The Alleged Similarities – A Descending Scale in Which Each Pitch Is Repeated on Evely Spaced Notes and a Common Clave Rhythm— Are UNPROTECTABLE, AND THE RESault of the Coincidental Use of Basic Musical Building Blocks,” Attney Christine Lepera Wrote in 2022.
Following Thursday's Dismissal, Lepera Tells Rolling Stone“We are very full pleasd with the Summary Judgment Decision, and with the Court's Recognition That Music Building Blocks Exist and Are Accessible to all Creators.”
Attney Jason Brown, Who Reps Brown (His Uncle) and Linzer, intends to appeal Judge Failla's decision. “Under Recent Case Law – Including the [Ed] Sheeran Decision – Courts Have Become Incaseingly Focused on what can be dissected and filterd out on paper, Rather Than What is felt Through the Music Itself, “He Tells Rolling Stone. “There's a growing disconnect betaeen How these Cases are decided – by Academically Analyzing briefs, Bar Lines, and Musical Notation – Versus How Audiences Actual Experience Music. The Soul of A Song Doesn's Live in A Court Brief. It Lives In the sound, The Feel, The Feel, and The Feel. Performance – and that's What Juries Shound Be Alawed to Hear and Judge. ”
A repording and other defenseants did not immediatetely respond to Rolling Stone's Request for comment.
In 2023, Another Judge, Sunshine Sykes, Dismisse to Case Against Lipa in Which in Reggae Group, Artikal Sound System, Claimed She Had Copied Their Song, “Live Your Life,” For “Levitating.”
