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 Radical Optimism - radio and press interviews |
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 19th April 2024, 02:52 PM
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#1
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Zach Sang interview:
Haven't watched yet (it's 45min) but plan to this weekend |
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20th April 2024, 06:22 PM
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#2
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baddest of them all
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KISS FM interview:
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1st May 2024, 08:45 AM
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#3
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baddest of them all
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US radio interviews:
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1st May 2024, 09:07 AM
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#4
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baddest of them all
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From Dua's Associated Press interview:
QUOTE Making ‘Radical Optimism’ was so much more free flowing. And it didn’t have a formula, per se, but I always had that pop sensibility in the back of my mind. But I wanted to just experiment and try and create something new. But I think this was always kind of the album that I’ve always wanted to make. This album saw me through so many seasons. I grew so much and I evolved so much in those writing sessions, the process was really formative for me emotionally. (…) With ‘Happy For You’, I’ve never written a long like that before, it felt so cathartic and raw and honest, and I loved how safe I felt in that room to open up, and I love that version of myself. I already have thoughts and ideas for my next album. I have to tour this one first, but I’m always thinking ahead. |
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1st May 2024, 05:23 PM
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#5
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baddest of them all
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Apple Music interview
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2nd May 2024, 04:56 PM
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#6
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baddest of them all
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BBC interview
QUOTE Dua Lipa wants to turn this year's Glastonbury into a nightclub  Talk about an upgrade. When Dua Lipa headlines Glastonbury this June, it will be her first appearance at Worthy Farm since playing the cramped John Peel stage in 2017. At the time, it was the biggest crowd she'd ever played to. People spilled out of the tent into the surrounding fields. Straight after the performance, she bounced off the stage into an interview with the BBC. But as she sat down, she winced. “I’ve done myself an injury," she confessed. "I mashed my tailbone.” It was an aggravation of an old injury, caused by the whiplash intensity of her dancing. “I was doing all sorts of crazy stuff and when I got off stage, I could barely walk,” she admitted. Despite the pain, she was ecstatic. The gig felt like "a massive step up”. At that point, Dua Lipa was not yet Dua Lipa: The globe-conquering, Brit Award-winning, pandemic-soundtracking, Barbie-starring purveyor of glossy disco pop. But one month later, she released the pastel-hued video for New Rules, and her career changed overnight. A number one in the UK, and her first hit in the US, the song's message of female solidarity propelled her into main pop-girl territory, after years of hustling behind the scenes. Red flags The song clocked up its three-billionth play on YouTube this January – just as Dua started ramping up the campaign for her highly anticipated third album, Radical Optimism It’s a record that sees her navigating life after a major break-up, and establishing new New Rules to break a pattern of dating wrong ‘uns. “Before, I would see a red flag and be like, ‘Oh, how beautiful’,” she laughs. “It could be anything: One sly, demeaning comment that you brush off… and then you realise it's a pattern. “I’ve learned to not kid myself.” Those lessons permeate the album’s punchy, keyed-up dance anthems. On the singles Training Season and Houdini, she vets prospective partners, and shows the door to anyone who falls below her standards. The lyrics were inspired by a string of bad dates she endured after coming out of a two-year relationship with Anwar Hadid (brother of Bella and Gigi Hadid). But how does dating work for someone at Dua Lipa’s level of fame? Are people intimidated to ask her out? “I don't know if people feel free to approach me,” Dua muses. “Maybe? “Dating apps, for me, I don't think would work. They might think they’re being catfished. “I like to go on a friend’s recommendation. It makes it easier when they're vetted." The perfect date When a match is made, her expectations for a first date are charmingly unstarry. “I like a walk in the park," she says. "You can chat and walk and get to know someone. No frills. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. “Having a good conversation is the best thing. That's how you see if you gel, if there's a spark.” For now, at least, that's not a concern. Dua has been in a relationship with British actor Callum Turner since the beginning of the year. And her personal life will have to take a back seat as she gears up for a busy summer. Radical Optimism is released on Friday, with Dua hosting and singing on Saturday Night Live a day later (the last British artist invited to do that was Harry Styles). In addition, she’s got her podcast series, the weekly arts and culture newsletter Service95, and an upcoming Disney+ documentary series about Camden’s music scene, which she executive produced. But looming over everything is Dua’s return to Glastonbury. This time on the Pyramid Stage. “I think about it all the time,” she says. “Fifty per cent of my thoughts go to Glastonbury, then the rest are for everyday tasks.” Her journey to the top of the bill is a story of aspiration, setbacks and tenacity that goes right back to childhood. Dua was born in London in 1995, about three years after her parents, Dukagjin and Anesa, emigrated from Kosovo, having witnessed the beginnings of what would become the Balkan wars. A natural performer, Dua’s enthusiasm was thwarted by her primary school music teacher, who put her through a humiliating public audition in front of the whole school. “He started playing the piano and I’m trying to hit this high note, and nothing comes out. Literally just air,” she recalls. “Everyone in assembly laughed. I was so embarrassed. It was a big moment for me in my life.” Salvation came at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where the young Dua Lipa enrolled as a weekend student. There, she was taken under the wing of singing tutor Ray Lamb. Recognising that her voice skewed towards the lower end of the mezzo-soprano range, he instantly removed her from the junior choir and put her in with the teens. She was “mortified” to be singing next to children who were twice her height, but says Ray “helped me build my confidence”. “He was the toughest one, the scariest one, but really soft, deep down. And when he told you that you were good, you had a real sense of validation. He was the teacher that really made me feel I had something.” Encouraged, she started posting cover songs to YouTube (“I thought I’d get discovered like Justin Bieber”) until, all of a sudden, her parents decided to move back to Kosovo. Dua stuck it out for two years before persuading the family she should return to London. There, she shared a flat with a family friend, taking jobs in retail and modelling to pay her rent, while “trying to get school over with as quickly as possible”. Her first demos were released in 2012. A year later, after appearing in an X Factor commercial, she signed with Lana Del Rey's manager, Ben Mawson, who sent her for two years of intensive writing sessions. The results included early singles like Be The One and Hotter Than Hell; but it took a while for Dua to climb the rocky peaks of pop. Her debut album was delayed three times before New Rules lit a rocket underneath her career. Suddenly, she was learning her job in the full glare of the spotlight. Some of her early TV performances lacked polish, as the singer got used to juggling live vocals with camera angles and choreography. A stilted performance at a German festival spawned the "go girl, give us nothing" meme, which still stings to this day. "It made me feel like maybe I wasn't good enough or I didn't deserve to be there, I wasn't cut out to be a musician. " she told America’s National Public Radio in 2022. These days, those early wobbles are a distant memory. Dua opened both the 2024 Grammy and the Brit Awards, with high-concept, acrobatic dance numbers that could have been lifted straight from a movie musical. Creating those performances counts as “some of the most rewarding work I have done with an artist in my career”, says her long-time choreographer Charm La’Donna. “I really admire Dua's work ethic and the grit she has to keep challenging herself as a performer. We have such a good time creating together that at the end of the day, it doesn't feel like work." Dua says the title of her new album, Radical Optimism, is partly a reference to the uncertainty of her early days. “I thought it was so important, the idea of pushing through when things feel like they aren't going well. Because often, with hindsight, you can say, ‘This thing that really upset me, I can see from a different perspective now’.” It’s a mindset she brought to the album. Writing sessions actually began in 2021, as a way of staying productive when the pandemic put her Future Nostalgia tour on hold. “I knew the title that early,” she says. “I felt like I had to write myself into a good idea.” However, the early sessions were fruitless. The new sound she was searching for didn’t materialise until she finally hit the road in 2022. The thrill of playing her music with a live band inspired her to take the same approach in the studio. Programmed beats and loops were replaced by live drums, flamenco guitar and even, on a song called Maria, the sound of a Polynesian nose flute. She calls it “alternative but pop, with a touch of psychedelia”. Fans will hear 11 tight, summer holiday-ready pop bangers - and the ones who pay attention to the lyrics will notice a big shift in Dua’s perspective. Her first album was full of screw-you anthems, aimed at a cheating boyfriend. But the final song on Radical Optimism, Happy For You, finds her wishing an ex good luck with his new partner. “Even the hard parts were all for the best,” she sings over a swirling piano motif. “I must have loved you more than I ever knew." “That’s definitely a new emotion,” says the star. “"I used to be much more impulsive and reactive [but] not every break-up has to be a bad one.” Her writing feels more specific on this album. On Watcha Doing, Dua admits the damage her need for control causes in relationships; while These Walls is a Polaroid picture of a couple realising their time is up, that reaches Abba levels of domestic misery. It’s a corrective to critics who’ve sometimes described Dua’s work as anonymous or faceless. “As a pop artist, there's always the stigma of not being taken seriously,” she says. “Pop music makes you feel good, so it can't be deep, or honest, or real. “But it's a challenge I'm willing to take on: Putting the meaning back into pop.” 'It's important to have more female headliners' It’s notable that Dua’s album arrives within weeks of headline releases by Ariana Grande, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, with new material from Billie Eilish due in May. In the past, they’d have been pitted against each other by a press hungry for drama. But not this time. “We’re definitely growing up,” says Dua. “People are being held accountable for the way they choose to portray women.” Setting up false rivalries “creates friction” and adds “pressure to a relationship that’s not yet fully formed”, she argues. That stifles artists’ ability to collaborate and support one another, and she’s thankful a corner has been turned. “We’re in a moment in time where there’s so much camaraderie and I think it’s working in our favour,” she says. “It’s amazing to see so many women putting out albums at the same time. And everyone is so different, with such different stories to tell, so why isn’t there room for everyone?” Glastonbury proves that there is. For the first time ever, the festival will have two female headliners – with Dua joined by US R&B phenomenon SZA. “I feel so lucky to be a part of that shift,” says Dua. “It’s important to have more female headliners. We’ve just got to keep applying the pressure and making that change happen.” The booking is effectively a coronation for the new queen of British pop – and Dua is determined to make it count. She casts her mind back to her first tour, when she’d invite the audience on stage for the encore of Blow Your Mind (Mwah), and wonders how that would work on the Pyramid Stage. “It might be tight,” she laughs. “But I’ve got to figure out a way to make 150,000 people feel like they’re in a small little nightclub. “That’s the goal, and if there’s one place to do it, it’s gotta be Glasto.” Let’s just hope she takes care of her tailbone this time. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4dlg2qvn8o Extended interview on BBC iPlayer |
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2nd May 2024, 08:03 PM
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#7
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Joined: 2 August 2008
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PRIDE interview
QUOTE Dua Lipa dishes on her love for the gays, learning tough lessons & 'picking herself up'  This Friday, everyone will dance the night away. Dua Lipa has cemented herself as one of the top artists dominating music industry today. With so many hits under her belt like "Don't Starts Now," "Physical," "New Rules," "One Kiss," and so many more, the Grammy winner and fierce ally is ushering in an exciting new era that will leave fans gagging. To be clear, she knows exactly who she has to thank for helping her skyrocket to success... the gays. In a new interview with PRIDE, Lipa thanks the LGBTQ+ community for elevating her career to what it's become today and gives a sneak peek as to what's next in this thrilling chapter. PRIDE: Congratulations on your new album Radical Optimism. The world could all use some optimism right now, so what does this record mean to you? Dua Lipa: It's about picking yourself up when things aren't going your way. It's about resilience. It's about walking gracefully through chaos. That's also been something that's been a massive theme for me, because you do your most learning when you're outside of your comfort zone. You can only be out of your comfort zone in uncomfortable situations and that's where you do your most emotional maturing. Your confidence is seriously coming through the music. In fact, you just made history on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart by occupying the top three spots! I did?! Yes! You just made history! I didn't know girl! Yes! Your three latest singles "Illusion," "Houdini," and "Training Season" are sitting at the top of the chart and it's the first time a woman has ever done so. Wow. I am so excited about this news. This is amazing. What a dream! It's absolutely incredible to keep people dancing. Dance music has served as a safe space for so many people and to be able to be a part of that is amazing. One of the reasons your tracks are killing it right now is because of your passionate fanbase, which is largely LGBTQ+. How incredible does it feel knowing the queer community has supported you since day one? I'm so grateful. It's a community that's just given me so much and has been so incredibly supportive. For me, the important thing is to give back to that community that's given me so much, so I'm very grateful. You're also one of the many women dropping an album during "Pop Girl Spring," with top female artists such as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and many more releasing records this spring. What goes through your head when I say that out loud? It's amazing! I love being part of this wave of women and female artists that are taking charge. It's so inspiring to be amongst so many incredible women. It's seriously deserved. How would you say you've gotten to such a confident place in your life today? Growing up and seeing that every experience, whether it's good or bad, is a lesson and you learn something and you take something away from everything. That's given me confidence to never see anything as a bad experience, but as a beautiful lesson. I love that so much. You've put out hits out for years and everyone has a favorite Dua Lipa song, but what would you say is your favorite hit you've released? Oh gosh! I think "Illusion" is really one of my favorites right now, but from my last record... "Don't Start Now." Every time when I'm about to perform it on stage, it gets me very excited. What are you currently manifesting or working on that we should know about? I'm always thinking about what's next. I'm so focused on putting a really amazing tour together. I've got big shows coming up this summer. This is a bit of a new experience! My last record came out in the pandemic and then two years later, I've managed to tour it. Everything is happening so much quicker with this one, so let's just see what happens! Speaking of touring, I actually saw the Future Nostalgia Tour and my favorite part was when you did the iconic shimmy dance at the end! Oh you did?! You gotta come down for the next one! The little shimmy dance... you gotta do it! You gotta bring it back. You gotta remember where you started! Is there any artist you'd love to collaborate with one day? I'd love to collaborate with André 3000! I'm a huge OutKast fan and he's always been on the top of my list for sure. You've got so many amazing songs on Radical Optimismand I love that so many of your songs never leave the charts. How do you think you've cracked that code? They're just lingering around and sticking around for a long time! I'm grateful for it. There's some crack in them somewhere! Before I let you go, do you have any positive messages you've love to send to your LGBTQ+ fans as they listen to this album? I just want to send love to each and every single one of you. I am so grateful for all the love and support. I am here for you in every single way. Let's just keep dancing! https://www.pride.com/interviews/dua-lipa-radical-optimism LOVE that Don't Start Now is her fave 
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3rd May 2024, 02:58 PM
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#8
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baddest of them all
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New interview with Tom Power
QUOTE There’s this massive stigma as a female artist, that unless you’re behind a piano or a guitar, and if you’re making songs that feel good, that they don’t have depth. My life is so public, whether I like it or not. I’ve made peace with the fact that people have insight into my life and make up scenarios about me because I get to do what I love every single day. When I write songs and how I chose to dress them up, that’s my therapy. I don’t have to say a name, that can be for me and them. I don’t have to put someone on blast in order for me to get my catharsis.
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6th May 2024, 03:18 PM
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#9
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baddest of them all
Joined: 2 August 2008
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The Guardian interview
QUOTE  'When I became a meme it was humiliating and hurtful’: Dua Lipa on pop, psychedelics and proving her haters wrong Simon Hattenstone For two years, a viral joke mocking the singer’s dancing threatened to overshadow her record-breaking success – but the laser-focused star had the last laugh. And now she has her sights set on building a media empire 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? “No,” 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 Warner 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. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/may/...er-haters-wrong |
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6th May 2024, 04:07 PM
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#10
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Baby Reindeer
Joined: 9 March 2008
Posts: 13,714 User: 5,567 
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Is there any artist you'd love to collaborate with one day?
I'd love to collaborate with André 3000! I'm a huge OutKast fan and he's always been on the top of my list for sure. - Yes queen |
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Monday, 03:02 PM
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#11
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baddest of them all
Joined: 2 August 2008
Posts: 21,983 User: 6,764 |
Dua is currently promoting in France. She did an interview on the French TV show 20h30 |
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| Time is now: 16th May 2024, 01:50 PM |
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