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Dua Lipa tells GAY Time she loves how “badass” Gwen Stefani, P!nk, and Nelly Furtado are

Dua Lipa is on the cover of Gay Times along with a new interview about ‘Radical Optimism,’ London’s G-A-Y and Heaven nightclub, ‘Drag Race,’ her favourite season of ‘American Horror Story,’ and more. You can read the full interview on their website here or below:

I saw a rainbow the other day,” Dua Lipa, ally, shares with GAY TIMES. Although the radical optimist didn’t immediately associate the multicoloured-arc-formed-by-light-striking-water-droplets with the alphabet mafia (sacrilege, really), we’ll let her off: she’s been an avid supporter of the LGBT’s since her 2016 synthpop debut ‘New Love’, performing at Heaven in her “first-ever London shows” and proudly flying the flag with performances at Pride. More recently, Dua has showcased her unrivalled painting prowess with Trixie Mattel, defended her “Vacanza Queen” title on Las Culturistas and paid homage to “Dula Peep” on SNL, all of which has officially solidified her place as an icon for the queers and, of course, a “mother”.

“It’s so important to me that the gays love it,” Dua says, smiling, of her newly released third album. The follow-up to her self-titled debut (2017) and seminal sophomore album Future Nostalgia (2020) – both of which are the most streamed albums by a female artist on Spotify, by the way – Radical Optimism is an 11-track collection of sun-drenched earworms that incorporate elements of psychedelia (‘Houdini’), disco (‘Training Season’), house (‘Illusion’) and funk (‘Whatcha Doing’). The album is Dua’s way of combating “chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm” – and, naturally, she wants the gays to groove, dance the night away or whatever: “I do think about everyone who’s listening to it in the clubs – at Heaven! – and dancing like, ‘I want to give everyone the best experience possible.’”

With the release of Radical Optimism and her Glastonbury headline slot approaching – which she describes as the “biggest show” of her career (and “life”) – GAY TIMES visited Dua in Shoreditch to discuss the ‘experimental’ sounds of her third album, which non-single will resonate the most with the gays and her coveted status as one of Drag Race’s most lip-synced artists. Without further aDua…

I was tempted to wear my Dua Lipa t-shirt today. Would that have been weird? Freaked you out?
You would’ve never freaked me out. I’d have been very chuffed. But, I’m glad you have one in your wardrobe.

It was from the ‘Houdini’ music video premiere.
I love that. The one with the tongue?

The one with the tongue. As a massive pop music fan, watching that music video on the big screen with fellow fans was pure euphoria.
When I saw it that big I was like, ‘Fucking hell!’ And you know the room we were in was where we filmed it?

I’m a bit daft and didn’t realise that until two weeks later. So, Dua Lipa, what song from Radical Optimism are you feeling the most today?
That’s an interesting question. Today I’m feeling ‘Training Season’ because I’ve been doing so many interviews talking about my journey and what I’ve done to get here. I did one about Glastonbury earlier, and I was reminiscing on my show in 2017 and all the touring I did in 2022. I got the offer for Glasto in November of 22, and I feel like everything up until this point has been preparing me for the biggest show of my life, which is headlining Friday. So I’m like, ‘Training Season is over, and now the fucking big thing is coming, and I can’t fuck it up!’

That’s very exciting. I’m feeling ‘Happy For You‘, I think.
Okay… Talk to me about that?

Well, Dua Lipa, it makes me want to get a boyfriend, break up with him and then, a few months later, smile with happiness at a picture of him with someone new. Really mature.
Yeah, I think it’s a real full circle moment, that song. To be able to see an ex and not feel anything negative in that sense and be like, ‘It’s so important that you also have happiness and joy’ and don’t see it in a negative way. It’s such a big part of growing up.

Your Rolling Stone interview described it as a modern day ‘Cool’ by Gwen Stefani, which I liked.
Oh wow. I like that comparison a lot.

You’re a huge lover of Gwen, right? As well as Pink? I bring it up because, the moment I learned of your love for them, I was an immediate stan.
I love P!nk and Gwen a lot. I grew up listening to both of them so much. They’ve soundtracked my life. Them and Nelly Furtado, I love how badass they are. They always said what was on their minds and went against the grain in terms of a pop sensibility. Yeah, such a fan!

I need a collab with you three, but I think I’d go into cardiac arrest.
[Laughs] Maybe we gotta make it happen.

Radical Optimism is pop to the core. How are you feeling about putting it out into the world?
I’m excited. I’m nervous. Putting anything out is such a scary and vulnerable place to be in. People will pick it apart; pick what they like, don’t like, talk about it, what it means and what they think it means to me. It’s going to be interesting. It’s also a pop record through-and-through, but it is sonically different to what people have heard from me. I just hope everyone likes it! And I know that’s a big ask, as you can never please everyone, but it would be nice if it was a nice response.

How did you choose ‘Illusion’ to be number three?
I always knew ‘Illusion’ was gonna come before the album. I felt like it was the one to carry me into the summer. It’s a fun dance track that makes me feel really good. I just always knew it was gonna be number three. When I was toying with the other ones, that was a non-mover. Also, ‘Illusion’ was the first song that I wrote with Kevin [Parker], Danny [L Harle], Tobias [Jesso Jr.] and Caroline [Ailin].

The ‘Illusion’ video is major, by the way. Also, thank you Dua Lipa for continuing to give us an era. A lot of artists, these days, like to release two singles and call it a day. Not Dua Lipa!
[Laughs] I’m giving you all of it. There’s more coming. I have a few more things up my sleeve…

Oh wow. Excuse my excited squeal, I am simply a slut for pop music.
I can tell! How long have you been a journalist?

Seven years, so around the time you debuted too. Funnily enough, one of the first ever articles I did for GT was for the ‘Lost in Your Light’ video, which you retweeted. You obviously remember that, because you haven’t got a lot going on.
I have a weird relationship with Twitter. You came at a point when I was loving Twitter. We go back, you and I!

Way back, Dua Lipa. You previously said Radical Optimism is about going through chaos “gracefully” and feeling like you can weather any storm. These themes are needed right now, right?
Our world is going through so much, all the time. Navigating the everyday, we’re just trying to figure out how to respond to different things that are happening in the world, how to show up for our friends and make sure they’re seen and heard. Sometimes, things have to get really bad before they can get good, in some weird way. Everything goes through peaks and troughs, but as long as we look at things positively in some way, or surround ourselves with the people that we love, or do things we like to do everyday, or find something nice in the everyday, it makes things easier. Finding that optimism is really vital, and so this is another thing of like, ‘Note to self: when things feel really bad, it will get better, change and evolve. You will learn from every experience.’ Instead of shying away from all the negative experiences and the things that cause you pain, walk through it.

Do you ever sit back and say, ‘Yep, I fucking did that’?
[Laughs] See, I don’t do that! I just think the reaction, more so than anything, when I get off stage or when I bump into someone in the street and they say, ‘This song makes me feel a certain way’, that makes me feel good. That gives me a lot of joy.

You have mentioned how this album is inspired by psychedelic, trip-hop and Britpop. What is it about those genres that fit with the themes of Radical Optimism and where you’re at personally?
I think it’s more of an energy, rather than a genre comparison. It was the ambient sounds and musicality that I was most attracted to. The Screamadelica album by Primal Scream, the Portishead record Dummy, Porcelain by Moby, it’s all these euphoric sounds that put you immediately into a world. That was what I was trying to create in my own way. It was that energy that I was really inspired by, but also the freedom of experimenting and trying out new things. I’m not getting away from the fact that it’s a pop record at all, I don’t want that to be the case because I love pop, it’s just that I was experimenting with different sounds that felt, to me, more like that 90s world.

Let’s talk gay shit, Dua Lipa. [Whips out rainbow fan.]
Oh! We mean business. I’m glad you brought your fan. Gorgeous, colourful. I saw a rainbow the other day, on Easter.

Did you immediately think, ‘GAY!’?
Not sure. But I did think, ‘Wow, beautiful rainbow.’

Which Radical Optimism song do you think will elicit the most uproarious response from the LGBT’s, bar the singles?
Bar the singles?! I can’t say… Okay, ‘End of an Era’? It’s so hard! What do you think?

Maybe ‘Whatcha Doing’?
[Starts singing ‘Whatcha Doing’]. I also think ‘These Walls’. It’s more emotional, that one. I don’t know if I can hear that one at Heaven, y’know?

Do you go to Heaven a lot?
No, I haven’t been in ages. But, I did all my first-ever shows in London at Heaven.

We need another Heaven show.
We need another Heaven show.

I’m not really a clubby person anymore Dua Lipa, but I will make a return to Heaven if you’re there.
When was the last time you went?

Oh, well I actually went last week. But, it was for a Drag Race UK finale event! It doesn’t count.
Oh! Okay, okay, okay. You’re like, ‘I don’t go out anymore, but I did go to Heaven last week.’

Read me, Dua Lipa. The LGBT’s love you, hence this interview. Not just for the music, but for how outspoken you are about queer rights. Can you remember when you first noticed the support of the community? Was there a specific moment when you thought, ‘The rainbow people are here for me’?
Probably when I got asked to do the show at Heaven. It was really cool to be in that space and perform, and be so welcomed. Those were the early days of my music as well, and I just felt so accepted by the community. I’ll say around then, probably when we were messaging on Twitter.

Again, we have such a history, don’t we?
We do go way back. I’m so glad we’re reunited.

Are the gays ever in your mind when you’re creating art? Do you ever write a song, record a video or rehearse a dance routine and think, ‘Bloody hell, they’re gonna love this shit’?
Yeah, it’s always more in the… With the songs, I always start off by putting my thoughts out, which initially starts as being cathartic. As the song is taking shape, I think about the live element and I just want people to have fun. So, I do think about everyone who’s listening to it in the clubs – at Heaven! – and dancing like, ‘I want to give everyone the best experience possible.’ So, for sure, I think, ‘I hope the gays love it.’ It’s so important to me that the gays love it. And then, for my music videos, my stylist Lorenzo always says, ‘Right, we’ve gotta give the gays what they want.’ For the ‘Illusion’ video, I think we did just that!

It feels like love for you, from the gays, reached a new seismic shift with the release of ‘Physical’.
Really?!

Abso-bloody-lutely. Obviously, we loved you pre-‘Physical’, but post-‘Physical’ is when it reached a new level of love.
It’s a fun, high-energy, feel-good song. I’m so happy to hear that, because it’s the kind of song that brings people together. I’m really grateful to hear.

I enjoyed your recent video with Trixie Mattel. I have to ask, Dua Lipa, when can we expect that Drag Race guest judge appearance?
I know! We’ll see. We’ll see. I don’t know. I need a requests list. I’ll try and tick them off for you. I love Trixie. She’s the best, and the glamour? The glam is out of control. The makeup is art in itself. I really can’t paint. I can just about do my makeup. I loved being around her.

They’ve lip-synced to you quite a bit on Drag Race, have you seen any?
I saw the ‘Sweetest Pie’ lip-sync, and ‘Hallucinate’.

You’re so lip-synced to. I think there’s also been ‘New Rules’, ‘Don’t Start Now’, ‘Physical’ and ‘Break My Heart’.
I’m so lip-synced to.

Wow, that’s when…
That’s when you know.

You’ve made it, Dua Lipa. You’re a success.
I’m so grateful, thank you so much. That’s so cool.

I want to touch briefly on Future Nostalgia, because it just turned four. That’s your baby!
It’s my child. It’s my four-year-old child.

Despite all the odds against it, it’s become a pop classic. What are your favourite memories from that time?
Touring. I spent so much of the promotion in this weird limbo of not knowing if I’m ever going to be able to perform these songs, doing a lot of press from home and setting up green screens in my living room. It was a confusing time. I didn’t feel the energy from the people around me as much, apart from what I was reading online or what people were telling me about it. It was when I went on tour and I saw people collectively come together, singing and dancing. The tour was initially supposed to be so much of the first record, with a little bit of the second. After two years in lockdown, the Future Nostalgia Tour was every single song on the album. So, it was amazing and I had the best time on the road. I also like making the most of being on the road. I love the idea that I can go into a nice restaurant or museum, feel the culture, and go explore the city because that feeds into the performance.

The Future Nostalgia Tour was a camp extravaganza, so what can we expect from this one?
More of that! I want to keep the spectacle going, and I want people to have fun. Future Nostalgia was relentless to the core, and I want it to be that way for whatever’s next.

Last question, and this is really important: a few years ago you said that you’d like an acting role in American Horror Story, does that still stand?
I did say that. I’m such a fan of American Horror Story.

Favourite season?
I love Coven, and the first season [Murder House]. I really like Ryan Murphy, he’s brilliant, camp and scary. I just think [American Horror Story is] so theatrical and dark and moving and interesting and the stories are great. I don’t know, I love it. I would love to do it at some point.

I’ll message him for you.
Yeah, just tell him. The roles that I did [in Barbie and Argylle] were so small, so maybe I’d like to do something else in the future. But, music is really number-one.

I hope you had fun with me today, Dua Lipa.
I had so much fun. I loved it.

ME ON LEFT DUA LIPA ON RIGHT pic.twitter.com/pt8rkzJlyF

— Sam Damshenas (@samdamshenas) May 11, 2024

Magazines » 2024 » Gay Times UK (May)
Photoshoots » 2024 » Gay Times by Tyrone Lebon

Interviews, Magazines, News, Photos, Photoshoots, Radical Optimism, Videos

Posted by admin on May 10, 2024

Dua Lipa to The Guardian: “When I plan, I’m in control, therefore I can do anything.”

Dua Lipa was interviewed by The Guardian and features on the cover of their Saturday magazine, which is out today. Dua talked about ‘Radical Optimism,’ her tattoos, war-torn countries, the Service95 podcast, her 2018 Brits performance which she was made fun of for her “lack of energy,” and more. You can read the on their website here or below.

The London hotel room is huge, with a grand piano in one corner. In the middle is a stash of crisps, nuts and drinks, laid out as if we were in a high-end store. And on a sofa I can just about make out Dua Lipa, lost in the vastness. She could be a top footballer – red hair tied back, fresh-faced, wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a striped top. I’m trying to think what club it is. Barcelona?

She laughs. “No, I designed it. It’s merch.” I look closely. On the front, it says Training Season – the title of the second single from her forthcoming album, Radical Optimism. Ah, that makes sense; she is playing for FC Dua Lipa. Over the next hour, Lipa makes it clear that she’s a devoted fan of FC Dua Lipa, gives her all to it, and can only see it growing exponentially. Something I wouldn’t dare to disagree with.

Lipa, at 28, is already colossal. Her last album, Future Nostalgia, was the UK’s third highest selling in 2020 and the 10th biggest album in the world that year with 3.3m sales. It spawned four Top 6 UK hit singles – Don’t Start Now, Physical, Levitating and Break My Heart. She has won seven Brit awards and three Grammys, and has 88.6 million Instagram followers.

But now the pop star, singer-songwriter, podcaster, producer and incipient business tycoon is on the brink of something even bigger. Huge amounts of money have been poured into promoting the new album, she is headlining this year’s Glastonbury, and she has recently bought back the rights to her music catalogue, after walking away from her management team in favour of her father in 2022. It’s all very well being a common-or-garden superstar, but Lipa is looking way beyond that. She was 21st in last year’s Sunday Times Rich List for under‑35s, with an estimated worth of £75m, so there’s still some way to go before she joins Taylor Swift in the billionaire club. But you sense that is where she could be heading.

It’s a big year for you, I say.

“Yeah, it’s massive,” she says.

Are you nervous?

“Yeah. Terrified.”

What of?

“It’s more of an inner excitement, nerves, adrenaline, ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me in my life’ terrified.”

What can’t you believe?

“Just how far I’ve come.”

It’s interesting that you’re surprised about that, I say.

“Yeah. And I’ve worked my arse off to get here.”

It’s classic Lipa – confident, assertive and a tad defensive. “I’m not surprised,” she says, “I’m just excited that I have come to this point.”

You’ve got big boots to fill, I say – literally, in the case of last year’s Glastonbury headliner Elton John, with whom she collaborated on the chart-topping Cold Heart.

“Yeah, 1,000%.” This is one of Lipa’s favourite expressions. “Glastonbury is the pinnacle for me. It’s something I’ve been dreaming about my whole life. Every time I write a song, I think about how this is going to sound at Glastonbury. That’s my barometer.”

Her best songs do sound as if they’ve been made for a hot, sunny day at Glastonbury (arguably more so than her prized night-time headline slot). If you’re looking for lyrical profundity, Dua Lipa’s music is not your go-to. Most of her songs, written by a team with her at the helm, are about being betrayed by rubbish boyfriends, not standing any nonsense from rubbish boyfriends, having great sex with rubbish boyfriends and dumping rubbish boyfriends. But if you’re after electro-pop dancefloor bangers, she’s up with the best (One Kiss with Calvin Harris, Be The One, Physical, New Rules).

Lipa was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents who fled Kosovo in 1992, just after Yugoslavia had been dissolved and at a time of growing discrimination against ethnic Albanians. Her mother, Anesa, the child of a Kosovan father and Bosnian mother, trained as a lawyer. Her father, Dukagjin, is the son of Seit Lipa, an esteemed historian and a former head of the Kosovo Institute of History. In the 1980s, Dukagjin was a member of the Kosovan rock band Oda, before training as a dentist. In England, their qualifications were useless. So they waited tables while retraining – Dukagjin in marketing and Anesa in tourism.

Dua, the oldest of three children, showed promise as a singer. She attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London until the family returned to Kosovo, after it declared independence in 2008, when she was 11. By then, Dukagjin was studying mass communication at the Kosovo Institute of Journalism and Communication. Had his band been successful? “Yes,” she says. “Even now, it’s like a cult band.” When he went out in Kosovo did everybody stop him? “No, because Kosovo is so small everybody knows everyone.”

With its population of 1.87 million, Kosovo was too small to contain Lipa’s ambitions. At the age of 15, she pleaded with her parents to let her return to London by herself to pursue a career in music. Is it true that you delivered a PowerPoint presentation to them to make your case? “” she says. So how did you convince them? “I just had a conversation with them. I had to come back and finish my GCSEs if I wanted to go to university in London. That was my main argument for the whole thing. And as my dad likes to say, I’m a very hard person to say no to.”

Why? “I’ve always been very determined. I’ve always known what I wanted.” Lipa won the argument, but she didn’t end up going to university.

Back in London, she shared a flat with a family friend and completed her GCSEs and A-levels. Like her parents before her, she then waited tables – in a Camden cocktail bar. She uploaded her own songs to YouTube, joined a modelling agency and modelled for Topshop. In 2013, at the age of 17, she signed a contract with Tap Management, and, a year later, secured a record deal with Warner Bros. Lipa played it smart – as she always has. She knew Warners didn’t have a top female star so it would invest time and money in her.

As she talks, I’m trying to figure out her tattoos. Flames appear to be coming out of one finger. “It’s a fire,” she says. “It’s a powerful pointing index finger where I can manifest whatever I want into my life.”

On her arm in a small delicate type is the word PATIENCE, a tattoo that dates back to around 2015. Has she needed patience? “Yes, massively.” She talks about the couple of years in her late teens waiting for success as if they were decades. Then when the hits did come, they weren’t big enough. Be the One, her first single, made the Top 10, but none of the next four did. Lost in Your Light, featuring Miguel, only reached No 86. It looked as if it could be over for Lipa before she had got going. There were rumours that Warners were going to drop her.

In 2017, she recorded the song New Rules. It had been written for Little Mix, but the girl group passed on it. Lipa realised it was perfect for her. New Rules was her first No 1 in the UK. In the US, it bubbled around in the lower reaches of the Top 100 until it finally reached the Top 10 six months later. Her first album, simply titled Dua Lipa, was also a sleeper hit. She says this has become a pattern for her records in the US. “They don’t go to No 1, but they stick around and they’re around for a long time. And that’s about patience. That’s about just letting things do their thing; not forcing them.”

The title of her new album, Radical Optimism, is another take on the need for patience. “It’s about rolling with the uncertainties, being OK when things don’t go your way, understanding that everything’s for a specific reason. Patience is so important to me because there are moments that can be so frustrating and you can get stuck in a rut of like, ‘Had I done this, maybe I would have been here.’”

Radical Optimism continues in the dance vein of Future Nostalgia, with Lipa writing songs as part of a team that includes Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. Is she the team’s conductor? “I like to think so, yeah.” She says of the album: “It’s still a pop record, but more psychedelic with more alternative influences that show another side. It’s more experimental.”

Did you take psychedelics when the album was being made? “I didn’t take psychedelics when I made it,” she says in a stern, schoolmarmish voice. Did anyone take psychedelics? “No one took psychedelics … No psychedelics were harmed in the making of this album.”

I tell her I’m struggling with the theme of radical optimism, particularly in such a polarised, war-torn world. Lipa has been vocal in her criticism of the Israeli government and her support of the Palestinian people. “You know, it’s not just Israel and Gaza,” she says, “it’s also Russia and Ukraine. And there is so much happening in Sudan. There’s so much going on in our world that’s horrible. I think everybody’s feeling that sense of hopelessness.”

Exactly. So where do we find optimism? “For me, music has always served as a form of escapism. It’s about community, togetherness. It’s one language that we can all universally connect with.”

Agreed, art can be a great way to escape and bond. But I still don’t get the optimism. “I just like to see things in a positive way. Every time when you look back and in hindsight go, ‘Oh, that thing that upset me is so irrelevant now.’” And the radical element? “It’s the idea of being radically accepting of who you are, of your flaws. It comes over time, learning about yourself, going through different experiences, maturing. Understanding that being forgiving towards someone is just as important for them as it is for you. It’s about being able to move on. That is radical acceptance in its clearest form.” One song, Happy for You, sums up her philosophy of radical optimism – she spots an ex with his new model girlfriend and finds it in her heart to be pleased he’s found love.

Music writers have pointed out that in an era dominated by female singers with a distinct USP (Beyoncé empowers, Taylor confesses, Adele provides a shoulder to cry on), Lipa does not have one. She would probably agree and say that’s her strength. There are many Duas; she contains lucrative multitudes. So there is the singer who gets you dancing; the bikini-clad Instagram babe who always seems to be holidaying with a hot boyfriend (actor Anwar Hadid, film-maker Romain Gavras and now Masters of the Air star Callum Turner); the #sponsoredcontent creator who writes on X: “So fun being back with my @porsche family for 24hrs in Singapore!!!” Then there is the campaigner who wants to educate about social injustice, and the arts curator who runs a book club and interviews literary giants (she has taken the club to women’s prisons). And finally, there is the aspiring media tycoon who founded the website Service95 in 2022, which she describes as a “global style, arts and society venture – the ultimate cultural concierge – at the service of the reader.”

Perhaps it’s the podcasts that reveal most about her character and ambitions. Interviews with Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart, campaigner Monica Lewinsky and pop star Charli XCX were beautifully handled. But what’s most interesting is how little she divulges about herself. Often her subjects will tell Lipa a story about fame or the music industry, for example, and say that she must have experienced a similar thing. We wait for the revelation, but Lipa skilfully bypasses it and segues on to her next point. It’s a conjuring trick of sorts. She appears to invite us into her life – showing us what she reads, where she holidays, which issues she cares about – while revealing nothing truly intimate.

Is she aware of how little of herself she gives away in her podcasts? “Oh, 1,000%,” she says. “I guess I just wear different hats, and when I’m in my podcast world, and especially when I’m interviewing different artists, I’m there for them and for their story.”

You have an incredible knack of not answering their questions, I say. She smiles, curious. “Go on,” she says. Take Charli XCX, I say. When she asks which songs of yours you hate playing, you don’t answer. “Well, that’s really interesting because I don’t have a song that I hate playing,” she says.

OK then, one you’ve written that you hate?

“Yeah, I have that, but I can’t tell you that.”

Exactly, I say, but you’re happy for Charli XCX to tell you. “That’s entirely her prerogative. I don’t want to say because I write with other people. It could be a song that someone’s really proud of. I’m not going to go and shit on that.”

So next time Charli XCX guests on her podcast and offers up her least favourite song, is she going to tell her to keep it to herself so she doesn’t cause offence? No, she says. “I love how open she is, it’s great. Maybe I’m a bit more of an overthinker.”

Her most moving podcast is with Lewinsky, the former White House intern who was humiliated by Bill Clinton after the former president lied about not having “sexual relations” with her. I ask Lipa if she has ever felt humiliated. This time she does answer fully and with feeling. She talks about the time she was ridiculed after a wooden performance of her singing New Rules at the Brits in 2018 was posted on YouTube. One user commented: “I love her lack of energy, go girl give us nothing!” It went viral.

“When people took that snippet of me dancing online and just turned it into a meme, and then when I won the best new artist Grammy and people were like, ‘She’s not deserving of it, she’s got no stage presence, she’s not going to stick around.’ Those things were hurtful. It was humiliating. I had to take myself off Twitter. The thing that made me the happiest – performing and writing songs – was also making me really upset because people were picking everything apart that I’d been working on, and I had to learn all that in front of everyone. In the public eye, I was figuring out who I was as an artist, as a performer. All that was happening while I was 22, 23 years old and still growing up. You have to build tough skin. You have to be resilient.”

How long did that feeling of humiliation last? I expect her to say days, perhaps even weeks. “Until I finished writing Future Nostalgia and did my first performance of Don’t Start Now, at the MTV Europe Music awards.” How long was that? “I want to say – gosh, I don’t know – two years.” Wow, that is a long time, I say. “It never was like I couldn’t get out of bed because of what I thought people thought of me. I didn’t care to that degree. But that’s when it was most heightened for me.”

Anyway, she says, in the end she was vindicated. “It was November 2019 when Don’t Start Now came out, and it dawned on me that I’m finally going to get up and dance in front of people after what they have thought about me for so long. And I went back, did that performance, and everyone was like, ‘Oh, we were wrong.’ I got a real kick out of that.”

Lipa was widely praised for the work she had put in to improve her dancing. Did you feel that the criticism had been fair? “No. Not in the slightest. I don’t think it was fair because it was a small snippet of a much bigger performance. I think people who had seen me play live on the first album tour would have thought a very different thing.”

Wasn’t there a positive to the criticism – it showed your grit and you returned a better performer? “For sure. Definitely. It had an impact in that way, but I was always going to work towards being a good performer. There was no way I was going to not let that happen, regardless.” It just took one sarcastic meme for Lipa to lose control of her image, and it took 19 months to regain it.

Since then, she seems even more determined to retain control. Lipa regiments her life to the minute, allocating time slots for showering and eating. I ask what her diary looks like today. “I woke up at 7.30, I did pilates, I had a shower, I had a coffee, I recorded a podcast … ” Is all this written down? “Yeah, I recorded a podcast with an author called Tomasz Jedrowski, who wrote the book Swimming in the Dark. I got dressed, I came here, I had an interview. You’re my second interview. I have one more after you, and then I go to rehearsals. After rehearsals, I go home, I cook dinner, I go to bed, and that’s my day.”

Blimey. Do you get knackered? “I do, but that’s why I like to plan things. When I plan, I’m in control, therefore I can do anything. That’s how I see it.” Control is a word Lipa returns to repeatedly.

In 2022, she walked away from Tap Management, the company that had launched her career. Her departure was linked to the size of the cut she received from recording and commercial deals negotiated on her behalf by Tap. According to her accounts, Lipa’s net worth had more than doubled to almost £50m in 2021, up from £24.5m in 2020. At the time, she also had nearly £30m of assets in her touring company Dua Lipa Live LLP. She announced that Dukagjin would take over her management – though, Lipa being Lipa, you sense she will be the real boss.

Was leaving Tap another example of taking control? “It was definitely about taking control back. I really wanted to be more in the know about everything happening with me.” I ask if it was a tough decision. “Like any decision with any relationship that you’ve been in for a long time, the conversation is never easy. But when you know it’s for your best, then conversations need to be had, no matter how difficult they are.” Did you feel you had been used by Tap? “I don’t think that’s something I’m comfortable talking about.” When Lipa left Tap, she also bought back the rights to her music. “I just wanted everything to be under one umbrella. I want to be in control. I want to know how my music is being used. I want to be the sole decision maker on all of that.”

She tells me about Radical22 Publishing, her publishing and production arm. “Through my book club, I get sent lots of new books, and if I find a story that I love, then maybe I can help produce it or bring it into a different world.” She mentions a documentary series on London’s musical heritage, directed by Oscar winner Asif Kapadia that Radical22 is producing. “It’s about Camden, which is my home. I’m so excited about that. I want to grow with all these other aspects of my job.”

It’s now that I feel I’m seeing the real Dua Lipa. And it’s now that the podcasts she has made with Apple CEO Tim Cook and former New York Times editor-in-chief Dean Baquet begin to make sense. Sure, the music is important to her, but Lipa seems to be playing a longer game.

When she met Cook and Baquet, she saw the interviews as learning opportunities: how do you grow the world’s biggest tech company? How do you lead the world’s most influential media organisation? How do you plan for, shape and, of course, control your global success? Her interview with Baquet was strategic. The NYT had run an advert in May 2021 targeting Lipa and supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid. The ad, paid for by the World Values Network headed by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, featured photos of the three women, with a headline saying “Bella, Gigi and Dua, Hamas calls for a second Holocaust. Condemn them now”. It claimed the women had accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and “vilified the Jewish State”. Lipa said at the time: “I utterly reject the false and appalling accusations”, and called it a “blatant misrepresentation” of who she is.

When she interviewed Baquet a year later, she interrogated him about the advert and told him how it had affected her. Baquet struggled to provide a convincing answer as to why the paper had run the ad, simply saying there was a church and state separation between editorial and advertising. But, I discover today, there was an even more politic reason for the podcast. It was Lipa’s way of resolving her problem with the NYT. What clued-up superstar wants to be at war with such a powerful organisation? “For me, it was important because I wasn’t working with the Times because of it.” You had boycotted it? “I wasn’t doing any media work with them because I felt I was put in danger. So it was important to talk to him about it. It was something that I needed to get off my chest.” She is no longer boycotting the NYT.

What is fascinating in her interviews with Cook and Baquet is how much common ground she finds with them as cultural curators, media grandees and global influencers. As well as its book club and podcast, Service95 provides news features, restaurant reviews and travel pieces.

As she has almost 90 million Instagram followers, would I be right in thinking that she’d like to create a media empire? “Yeah, potentially. I think the media sphere is changing drastically.” And, yes, she understands perfectly why her fans may prefer to come to her for news. “We have a lot of subscribers. We’re giving a platform to voices that we think really need it, and it’s news that maybe people might not necessarily go looking for. I think we offer something different to what the Guardian or the New York Times are doing.”

Are you going to take my job? I whimper. “Definitely not,” she says. “I need you. Because I want to commission interesting stories, but I need the writer. I need the journalist. Journalists are super vital. The people who tell the stories are super important.”

She recently started to learn Spanish, French and Italian, and plans to be fluent in all three languages by the time she’s 35. Where do you see yourself then – a multilingual, singing media tycoon?

“Yeah, all of it,” she says. “Why not? Yeah. Hell, yeah.”

On my way out, I ask again about her shirt. “Isn’t it like the AC Milan top?”

“No, I designed it myself with my team,” she says firmly. “Do let me know if you want to write something for us.”

Thank you, I say, much appreciated.

“1,000%,” she says.

Magazines » 2024 » The Guardian on Saturday
Photoshoots » 2024 » The Guardian on Saturday by Tyrone Lebon

Interviews, Magazines, News, Photos, Photoshoots

Posted by admin on May 4, 2024

Dua Lipa covers The Guardian’s Saturday Magazine

Dua Lipa is on the cover of The Guardian in Saturday, available to buy tomorrow, May 4th. The photo was shot by Tyrone Lebon.

Magazines » 2024 » The Guardian on Saturday

Magazines, News, Photos

Posted by admin on May 3, 2024

New Beauty Papers magazine covers

Four more covers have been released of Dua Lipa on Beauty Papers magazine. The first two covers were shot by Collier Schorr, while these were shot by Johnny Dufort and Brianna Capozzi, respectively. Be sure to check out the full photoshoot here. You can see who shot each photo on the web version of the gallery.

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Magazines » 2024 » Beauty Papers

Magazines, News, Photos

Posted by admin on May 1, 2024

Dua Lipa for Beauty Papers Magazine

Dua Lipa is on the cover of Beauty Papers magazine, dubbed the “Dua Zine.” The photos were shot by Collier Schorr, Brianna Capozzi and Johnny Dufort. For Schorr’s shoot, Dua’s styling was by Katie Burnett, with makeup by Daniel Sallstrom, hair by Malcolm Edwards and nails by Mei. The magazine is available to buy in print for £25 (128 pages) and in digital (140 pages) for £10.

In Dua’s Instagram post, she said “DUAZINE 1 OF 3,” as there are six covers shot by three photographers (two covers each, for print and digital). Only Collier Schorr’s covers have been released at the time of this post. Beauty Papers says the “special digital edition” features “exclusive covers and content,” hence why it is more pages.

Beauty Papers goes ultra supa pop with Dua Lipa in a guerrilla zine celebrating complexities, contradictions and obsessions of what it is to be Dua.

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Magazines » 2024 » Beauty Papers
Photoshoots » 2024 » Beauty Papers by Collier Schorr, Brianna Capozzi & Johnny Dufort

Magazines, News, Photos, Photoshoots

Posted by admin on Apr 29, 2024

Dua Lipa shares behind the scenes of ELLE USA

Dua Lipa shared some behind the scenes photos of her ELLE USA photoshoot.

Photoshoots » 2024 » Behind the scenes: ELLE USA

Magazines, News, Photos, Photoshoots

Posted by admin on Apr 22, 2024

Dua Lipa is on the cover of ELLE Arabia

In addition to featuring in ELLA USA, Dua Lipa also features in ELLE Arabia with the same photoshoot and interview. There are two covers available.

Magazines » 2024 » ELLE Arabia (May)
Photoshoots » 2024 » ELLE Arabia by Dan Beleiu

Magazines, News, Photos, Photoshoots

Posted by admin on Apr 20, 2024

Dua Lipa covers Music Week: “I’m doing things I never had the courage to do before”

Dua Lipa covers the latest issue of Music Week, which will be released next week on April 23rd. The magazine have shared some highlights (below) ahead of the full cover story becoming available both digitally and online upon its release.

Dua Lipa on making Radical Optimism
“It was about being able to dictate. Before, I wasn’t as confident in my craft. I definitely feel so much better about who I am as an artist and a songwriter, what I want to do and say and how I want to say it.”

Dua Lipa on taking control
“I think I trusted that other people knew better than me, and in some ways they did because they were more experienced. But I’ve just been learning to follow my gut and do the learning myself, rather than rely on other people’s knowledge.”

Dua Lipa on Radical22
“It’s about having control over my music, having the final say over what happens to it. As an artist, it’s important to understand that this is a business.”

Dua Lipa on Glastonbury
“Glastonbury has always been the pinnacle. It’s my favourite festival. I’m so grateful for the trust that Emily [Eavis] has put in me and I’ll make sure it’s great. It’s the biggest show of my life, so I’m gonna make sure I don’t fuck it up!”

Dua Lipa on Joe Kentish
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him. I love it when he comes into the studio – he’s someone who I really want to impress, so every time I play Joe music, I hear things differently and realise what needs to change without him even saying anything.”

Dua Lipa on being a ‘pop star’
“People want you to speak out about things that you believe in, create a safe space for fans, or talk about current issues or activism. But at the same time, a lot of people want you to not do that and they want their pop stars to just be very quiet, like, ‘Just sing your song and don’t get involved in politics.’”

Dua Lipa on the music business
“I think that people mistake artists as being away with the fairies, because we are preoccupied with the creative side and that’s the only thing we really want to be doing. People take advantage of that a lot. People are proper charlatans and they’ll try it!”

Magazines » 2024 » Music Week UK (May)

Interviews, Magazines, News, Radical Optimism

Posted by admin on Apr 18, 2024

Dua Lipa covers TIME 100: “Since I was very little, I’ve jotted down things I’ve dreamt for myself”

Dua Lipa is the first 2024 TIME 100 cover star. She spoke to TIME about her new album, ‘Radical Optimism,’ her childhood in Kosovo, and the power of manifestation. Read the full interview below or on the TIME website here.

Dua Lipa is a master escape artist. In her nu-disco bop “Houdini,” she sings about someone with so little patience for superficial gestures that she’ll vanish if a potential suitor doesn’t go above and beyond. In the cavernous LA studio where we met in February, Lipa performs a different sort of disappearing act — which is to say, she materializes very suddenly when it’s time for us to chat, and, 45 minutes later, is gone just as abruptly.

Her swift appearance and retreat shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has followed her frenetic pace over the past few years. Yes, Lipa is a global superstar who has had five Top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared in last year’s most successful movie, but her output has only been possible because she makes use of every minute. The human being behind the hype seems to have a plan for everything — since the beginning of her career, she has taken a 24-hour day and stretched it out like taffy, carefully examining next steps and turning ideas into action.

Lipa’s deliberate approach to her work tracks with what she told TIME with a grin in 2017: “I’d like to take over the world… If I could.” The Dua Lipa from that interview is noticeably younger and more eager — an early 20-something on the verge of massive commercial success, thanks in part to her hooks-packed self-titled debut album, which housed gleaming electro-pop tracks such as “IDGAF,” “New Rules,” and “Be the One.” Lipa, now 28, is more composed but no less enthusiastic about the year ahead, which includes the May 3 release of Radical Optimism, her much-hyped third studio album. After all, she’s been manifesting it for seven years — perhaps even longer.

“Since I was very little, I’ve jotted down things I dreamt for myself,” the English-Albanian singer and songwriter says in an interview after her TIME100 cover shoot. “I’ve always planned ahead. Although surprises arise that I evaluate in the moment, there’s always a long-term goal.”

Sitting with her legs crossed in a black Jacquemus minidress, her red-tinted hair falling in loose waves around her face, Lipa speaks precisely, carefully considering each question before answering. Pop stars, especially those with incredibly successful careers, are often accused of being calculating. But in person, Lipa comes across as intensely thoughtful, whether she’s revealing what’s in store on Radical Optimism or sharing travel tips (pack light, bring books) and, in keeping with her one-time modeling career, poised. “It’s important to just write things down,” she says. “You never know what could come true.”

Does Lipa believe in the power of manifestation? Absolutely. “Manifesting is a big thing for me,” she admits. “I stand very firmly in the belief of putting things into the world. Subconsciously, you just work towards them. Nothing’s ever too big.”

Though Lipa chuckles at her younger self declaring her plans to take over the world, it’s hard to deny her stratospheric rise. Lipa was born in London in 1995 to Kosovo-Albanian parents Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa, who left Pristina as refugees in the early ‘90s. When Lipa was 11, her family moved back to Kosovo — a few years later, Lipa would persuade her parents to allow her to return to London to pursue a career in music.

While attending theater school as a teenager, Lipa started uploading covers to YouTube and SoundCloud, juggled restaurant and nightclub server gigs, and signed with a modeling agency. In 2013, Lipa got her first job singing — a version of Sister Sledge’s “Lost in Music” for a televised X Factor ad — which led to a publishing deal with TaP Music, and later, a record deal with Warner Bros. (Lipa left TaP’s artist roster in 2022, and bought her publishing rights back last fall.)

Lipa’s glimmering debut single, “New Love,” dropped in 2015, and was quickly followed up by the rhythmic “Be the One.” She rolled out more singles — “Hotter Than Hell” and “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)” — plus a dynamic collaboration with Sean Paul (“No Lie”) in 2016. By summer 2017, Lipa would finally unveil her self-titled studio debut.

Following the success of Dua Lipa, which earned her five nominations at the 2018 Brit Awards (she won British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo Artist), Lipa unleashed her critically acclaimed 2020 homage to disco, Future Nostalgia, a shimmering, modernist take on the ‘70s genre which won her the Brit Award for British Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Lipa’s success led to her involvement in Barbie. Her jubilant “Dance the Night,” which she co-wrote with Mark Ronson, soundtracks a pivotal scene in Greta Gerwig’s box-office smash. (The film also features a cameo from the pop singer as mermaid Barbie.) Earlier this year, Lipa appeared in the spy thriller Argylle, where she plays a Bond-esque villain named LaGrange. “I loved being on set,” Lipa says. “I love the idea of embodying a different character and having an assignment. I also love when I go to a photo shoot, and I can completely change up my look. It gives me like a different persona.”

Lipa, who was granted Albanian citizenship in 2022, also speaks passionately about her dual heritage, as well as the importance of Kosovo getting its visa liberalization, which allows nationals to travel freely around Europe’s borderless zone. “I’m from two places at the same time,” she says. “Being from Kosovo is just such a big part of who I am, and getting my Albanian citizenship was really exciting.”

“For a population in Kosovo, where over 50% is under 25 years old, it’s one of the youngest populations in Europe,” Lipa continues. “The opportunity to be able to travel freely is really important. There are all these kids who have big dreams and hopes and want to be able to move around, travel, and explore. They want to evolve and grow and hope that maybe they can be heard and seen in a different way. Now that their passports mean something, it feels really good.”

To honor her roots, Lipa is equally committed to shifting how her Western fanbase might perceive countries like Kosovo and Albania. “When people think about Kosovo, I don’t want them to be like, ‘Oh, war-torn Kosovo.’ There’s so much more to it,” she says. “We do a festival in Pristina, me and my dad, that’s about getting people from all over the world to come down and see how different it is to what they expect — whether that’s artists from all around the world, or fans that come in to see artists they love from neighboring countries. I know when I was living in Kosovo, none of my favorite artists were coming there. It is my biggest dream to be able to bring that to the kids there.”

To be a pop star — or any famous person in 2024 — requires diversification. On top of music and “little baby roles,” as she calls them, Lipa also moonlights as a journalist; Dua Lipa: At Your Service was named one of the Best Podcasts of 2022 by Spotify and features a who’s-who of celebrity guests from a variety of fields, from pop contemporary Billie Eilish to relationship guru Esther Perel. Meanwhile, Lipa launched a book club and lifestyle newsletter, Service95, in early 2022. (She name-checks Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland as a recent favorite.)

For the time being, however, Lipa’s primary focus is getting her third album out the door. Naturally, she envisioned what it would sound like years in advance. “I remember when I was working on my first album, I was making notes on what my third album was going to be,” Lipa says. “It’s mad to think about, but I remember speaking to my close friend and A&R Joe [Kentish], ‘Maybe album three, I could work with [Tame Impala’s] Kevin Parker,’ and he was like, ‘Alright, hold your horses, let’s take baby steps.’”

Lipa’s theory at the time was that if her first two albums were well received, “maybe I’d be deserving to be in a room with an artist I so deeply admire and look up to.” Not only is Tame Impala’s Parker a producer on the 11-track project, but Lipa assembled a tight-knit team of alt/indie-pop luminaries, including longtime co-writer Caroline Ailin, Danny L Harle, and Tobias Jesso Jr., to be in the studio with her.

“The record as a whole is more mature,” Lipa shares of her latest work, which features the singles “Houdini,” “Training Season,” and “Illusion.” Describing the album as being heavily inspired by ‘80s Scottish rockers Primal Scream and famed English trip-hop collective Massive Attack (a noted divergence from the mirrorball-spinning Future Nostalgia), she continues: “I’m definitely not the same person I was when I wrote my first album. I’ve evolved and learned so much… taking it as it comes, not seeing anything as bad or something as a setback. That involves a lot of growing and understanding myself, knowing my worth, whether it be in business, love, or friendship.

“I’m just a different person, so of course this record is going to be different,” Lipa muses on leaning into new sonic territory. “I have different thoughts, wants, needs, and perspectives. I’ve done a 180 on myself… I feel the most confident at this point in my life.”

The confidence is paying off, especially as she’s recently launched Radical22, an independent media and management company, which signed a global publishing administration deal with Warner Chappell Music. “I’ve been planting seeds for my other endeavors my whole life,” Lipa says. “It’s a way for me to be able to show everyone other sides to who I am. I love my music career and the fact that it gives me so much opportunity for expression. But it’s not the only thing I am.”