Dua Lipa Settles Levitating Remix Copyright Lawsuit With Bosko Kante

Dua Lipa has reached a settlement in a long-running copyright lawsuit over remixes of her hit song Levitating, Rolling Stone reported.

The case concluded when a joint filing was lodged in federal court in Los Angeles, bringing an end to the legal battle. Music Business Worldwide reported that the filing was signed by lawyers for both sides in late October and submitted on Monday, November 9.

Musician Bosko Kante originally filed the lawsuit in July 2023. He claimed that the pop star and her label, Warner Records, used a recording of his talk-box—a device that creates sound effects—without permission on three remixes of the track. While an agreement allowed the use of the talk-box on the original version of Levitating, Kante maintained that no such permission extended to subsequent versions.

The disputed remixes included the version featuring rapper DaBaby, a remix by The Blessed Madonna featuring Madonna and Missy Elliott, and a version created for the American Music Awards. Kante sought at least 20 million dollars in damages in his initial complaint. Music Business Worldwide noted that the DaBaby remix achieved massive streaming numbers, reaching 2.145 billion streams on Spotify by September 2024, compared to 984 million for the album version.

The newly submitted two-page filing states that the entire action is hereby dismissed with prejudice, meaning Kante cannot bring the same claims again. Under the terms of the filing, Kante and the defendants will each pay their own legal costs and fees. The filing does not disclose whether a financial settlement was reached, leaving details about any compensation undisclosed.

The litigation previously saw pushback from the defense. In 2024, Lipa and her co-defendants asked the court to dismiss the copyright claim, arguing that Kante failed to specify which parts of his recording appeared in the remixes. Judge Hernán D. Vera rejected that argument in September 2024, writing in his ruling that there is no requirement that Plaintiff be made to identify, second-by-second, which portions were used.

Rolling Stone reported that Lipa previously faced two other lawsuits alleging plagiarism over Levitating, though she successfully defeated those claims in court.