Dua Lipa: The Making of a Popstar

Dua Lipa has been making waves with her two new singles “Houdini” and “Training Season.” With back-to-back performances at the Grammy’s and the Brit Awards, the singer continues to grow in popularity. Building her image as the next big popstar has kept her in the spotlight, and fans are eager to see what she’ll do next. She released her first single in 2015 and her self-titled debut album in 2016. Since then, she released Future Nostalgia in 2020. These albums grossed 14 million and 11.5 million sales respectively, making them some of the most successful and most streamed pop albums in recent years. 

If you’ve been on the internet since 2018, you’ve likely seen the clip of Dua nonchalantly turning her hips, dubbed the “pencil sharpener.” This video soon became a meme, with the comment “Girl give us nothing!” gaining its popularity as a phrase. Since then Dua has opened up about how these comments affected her, finding them quite hurtful, but in a Jimmy Fallon interview, she stated she was reclaiming the move and bringing it back during her Future Nostalgia Tour. While she does credit these comments for pushing her to work harder and go through more rehearsal, she has also learned to take social media with a grain of salt and not let it affect her as much.

Since then Dua’s performances have featured more and more intricate dance choreography, and fans have commended her for using the negative comments to fuel her journey. Her most recent performance at the Brit Awards, not only featured a dance break but also aerial tricks with Dua and her backup dancers floating into the air.  

The dance-pop anthems of the 90s heavily influence Dua’s style, and her music always makes me wanna move my feet or sing along. She shared that much of her work is autobiographical, so she hopes that her music will give her fans an insight into who she is. While you may know many of her popular songs, I suggest checking out “Last Dance,” “Love Again,” and “Scared to be Lonely.” Over the years, Dua’s discography has also featured many collaborations from Calvin Harris to Elton John and even Bad Bunny. She also partners with DJs from around the world to release various remixes of her hit single, and she also released a full remix album called Club Future Nostalgia. These remixes feature new takes on her existing songs, and it’s so interesting to see the many different ways that one song can be produced.     

I was in the peak of my Dua Lipa era when her Future Nostalgia Tour was announced, so I knew I had to get tickets. One of my best friends from high school agreed to go with me, and one of my favorite memories was us practicing the lyrics over Facetime a couple of weeks before the show despite the horrible lag. Transition TikTok filmed and posted, we braved the freezing February weather to the stadium and awaited Dua’s arrival. The show was everything I could’ve imagined and more and to this day is still my favorite concert.

The lights, colors, dancing, and of course, Dua’s powerful voice made it such a fun experience. Our Facetime practicing came in handy, and we left the concert with scratchy throats and hoarse voices, but it was so worth it. So what’s next for Dua Lipa? She must’ve known I was writing this article, because she just announced her third album Radical Optimism, this time with a more lyrical theme as she describes. So far we’ve already gotten two music videos filled with choreography, and I’m so excited to see what comes next. With a new album could come another tour? And perhaps even a Superbowl half-time show performance?? (a fan can dream…) Whatever comes next for Dua, her fame continues to grow as she creates hit after hit for her adoring fans.