Dua Lipa Is The Popstar 2018 Desperately Needs
Three years into her career, Lipa remains refreshingly unpolished.
Nearly two years ago, about a hundred people — myself included — crammed into the Newtown Social Club (RIP) to see a little-known artist called Dua Lipa.
The Kosovo-born, London-based artist had started to make waves earlier that year off the back of single ‘Be The One’ and some well-received shows at SXSW, and this two-date Australian promo tour was being pushed by her label as an opportunity to see pop’s Next Big Thing.
Turns out, they were right: in the two years since that sweaty Newtown gig, Dua Lipa has risen to become one of pop’s biggest acts, with a debut album that has shifted over 1.2 million copies and a stack of BRIT Awards to her name.
Probably no one is more surprised about her meteoric rise than Lipa herself. In the middle of her packed out show at Sydney’s Big Top, she took a moment to reflect on that tiny Newtown gig — her first time playing in Australia.
“I had to step through the crowd and up on this small little platform,” she tells the rapt, 3000-strong crowd. “It was pretty rock ‘n’ roll… but this is better.”
It’s not like the road to this particular show has been easy, either: a bit over a week ago, Lipa was forced to cancel a string of her support slots with Bruno Mars to undergo emergency dental surgery. She’d been performing with an “awful pain” in her mouth for a while, and doctors had informed her she’d need to get her wisdom teeth removed immediately. But watching her on stage tonight, you’d have no idea her mouth had been cut open a week earlier.
Dua Lipa on stage in Sydney last night. Photo credit: Pixie Levinson
Lipa’s got enough hits up her sleeve now that she can comfortably knit together an hour-and-twenty setlist with nary a filler track to be seen. Hell, she throws out some of the biggest in the first half, including ‘Hotter Than Hell’, ‘Dreams’, ‘Garden’, and current single ‘IDGAF’. It’s seamless, and relentlessly energetic.
Lipa is an arresting performer, but by far what’s most compelling tonight is the brute force of her vocals. During tracks like ‘Garden’ and the Amy Winehouse-influenced ‘Thinking ‘Bout You’, she belts out the lower notes with a force not seen since Xtina. It becomes even more impressive when you remember she had fucking mouth surgery last week.
The best moments are simply the biggest: ‘Begging’ and ‘Be The One’ blow the roof off, and closer ‘New Rules’ — one of the best tracks of the last year — is as explosive a pop moment as you’ll ever see.
Lipa remains refreshingly unpolished: she swears profusely, she lambasts “fuckboys”, she tells the crowd to get rid of anyone who doesn’t deserve them. “Be unapologetically you,” she tells the teenage girls up the front. “Fuck off those that are bringing you down.”
Compared to the saccharine messages of previous pop gatekeepers like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, Lipa’s IDGAF attitude feels positively revolutionary — and desperately needed.
Along with fellow Brit Charli XCX, Lipa is at the forefront of a new guard of popstars. That handover can’t come quickly enough.
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Jules LeFevre is Staff Writer for Music Junkee and inthemix. She is on Twitter.