biography dua lipa

British-Kosovar-Albanian singer-songwriter Dua Lipa is a Grammy Award winner who captivated listeners with her hit single "New Rules" and her album 'Future Nostalgia.'

Who Is Dua Lipa?

Early life and family.

Dua Lipa was born in London, England, on August 22, 1995. In 1992 , Lipa's parents, Dukagjin and Anessa, fled Pristina, Kosovo, to escape conflict in the former Yugoslavia. As Kosovar Albanians, they were targeted by Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

Lipa's parents arrived in London as refugees. Though both were students (Lipa's father studied dentistry and her mother studied law), they worked in restaurants to make ends meet in their new home. In 1995, Lipa was born.

Lipa wrote her first song around the age of four . She had family connections to music — in addition to his dental studies, her father had been in a rock band. "My father was a musician and music was always played around the house so it just always kind of had a big impact on me," she shared in one interview. She grew up listening to artists like Blondie, Prince , Bob Dylan , Sting and Pink .

In 2006 , Lipa's parents felt it was safe enough to return to their home country. They brought an 11-year-old Lipa and her younger siblings, sister Rina and brother Gjin, back to Kosovo.

Though Lipa had grown up speaking Albanian at home, the move revealed that her language skills weren't good enough to thrive in school. With time, her Albanian did improve . She was able to make friends, who told her about the war that had taken place in Kosovo while her family was in London. Kosovo's hip-hop-dominated music scene also introduced Lipa to new music.

At 15, Lipa returned to London, where she moved in with a family friend. She got her parents to support the move because it would benefit her education . However, her true goal was to pursue singing; she felt launching a career in music wouldn't be possible in Kosovo. Sheexplained to CBS News in 2020, "I was like, I want to do music, but I want to do it on a global scale. I have to go back to where everything is happening."

Early Career and 'Dua Lipa'

In London, Lipa studied at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where she'd been a student before her family relocated to Kosovo. She also posted song covers on YouTube in an attempt to garner attention. "Deep down I wanted to have that Justin Bieber effect where someone would find me on YouTube!" she said in a 2020 interview.

Lipa earned money by working in a restaurant. She also signed with a modeling agency, believing it could boost her career. Yet because she wasn't interested in losing weight as the agency wanted, few jobs materialized.

Still focused on music, Lipa shared songs on SoundCloud. Though she didn't appear on the performance-focused reality show X-Factor , she did sing in a commercial for the show. In time, Lipa was offered a music publishing deal, which set off a fortuitous chain of events . Lipa contacted a lawyer for advice on the deal. The lawyer put her in touch with a manager, who also managed Lana Del Rey . Lipa ended up signing on with this manager.

In 2015, Lipa got a record deal. Her first single, "New Love," came out that year. More songs followed, but her self-titled album didn't arrive until 2017. That album's singles had middling success until "New Rules" was released. The video for that blockbuster hit has been viewed more than two billion times on YouTube. Another single from the album, "IDGAF," went platinum .

Growing fame resulted in some backlash for Lipa, such as being criticized for lackluster choreography in 2018. However, she took the comments in stride and used them as fuel for dance training sessions.

Growing Success and 'Future Nostalgia'

At the 61st Grammy Awards in 2019, Lipa won Best New Artist. She also won a second Grammy that year: Best Dance Recording for "Electricity."

Lipa's second album, Future Nostalgia , was more personal than her debut release. She'd come up with the title while in Las Vegas, and had a writing credit on all the record's songs. At the beginning of March 2020, Lipa was gearing up to release Future Nostalgia . Then the album leaked online just as the world was shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many other artists put their work on pause, but Lipa decided to release Future Nostalgia a week early.

Given the global crisis, Lipa was unsure about proceeding with the album release, though the leak had left her in a difficult position. Fortunately, her work was embraced by listeners. While Lipa had described her earlier songs as "dark pop," this album was more dance-friendly. The tracks displayed a connection to music from the 1970s, '80s and 90s, while also bearing up-to-date touches.

Lipa became the top female artist on Spotify's listening charts the week her album came out. As tours were off the table in 2020, in November Lipa live-streamed a concert called Studio 2054 , which included guest appearances by Kylie Minogue, Bad Bunn y and John. More than 5 million people saw the stream, setting a record for paid views.

Lipa received six nominations for the 63rd Grammy Awards. Future Nostalgia won for Best Pop Vocal Album.

Activism and Causes

Lipa has shared her support for Palestinians , abortion rights, women's rights , Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ rights . She has urged people in the United Kingdom to vote Labour and backed Bernie Sanders during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign.

With her father, Lipa created the Sunny Hill Foundation, an organization that assists younger people in Kosovo. Her family's experiences make her concerned about the future status of immigrants and refugees in a post-Brexit United Kingdom.

Personal Life and Boyfriend

Lipa has been dating Anwar Hadid, a model and the younger brother of Gigi and Bella Hadid, since 2019.

Prior to her relationship with Hadid, Lipa was involved with Isaac Carew.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Dua Lipa
• Birth Year: 1995
• Birth date: August 22, 1995
• Birth City: London
• Birth Country: England
• Best Known For: British-Kosovar-Albanian singer-songwriter Dua Lipa is a Grammy Award winner who captivated listeners with her hit single "New Rules" and her album 'Future Nostalgia.'
• Astrological Sign: Leo

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Dua Lipa Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/dua-lipa
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: December 2, 2021
• Original Published Date: December 2, 2021

Watch Next .css-smpm16:after{background-color:#323232;color:#fff;margin-left:1.8rem;margin-top:1.25rem;width:1.5rem;height:0.063rem;content:'';display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;}

Grammy Awards

Mick Jagger

Taylor Swift

Lana Del Rey

Sean “Diddy” Combs

Tyler Childers

Amy Winehouse

Justin Timberlake

• Manage Account

Chart History

Billboard hot 100™, cold heart (pnau remix), don't start now, dance the night, latest videos.

Drake Drops ‘The Heart Part 6’ in Ongoing Kendrick Lamar Feud, Dua Lipa & Usher Host Surprise Concerts & More | Billboard News

Kendrick lamar drops 2nd drake diss, dua lipa on ‘radical optimism,’ willow’s new album ‘empathogen’ & more | billboard news, dua lipa on the meaning of ‘radical optimism’ album title, headlining glastonbury & more | billboard news, nicki minaj’s surprise guests, britney spears settles divorce, dua lipa’s chart achievements & more | billboard news, dua lipa’s radical chart achievements | billboard explains, kendrick lamar takes jabs at drake with ‘euphoria’ drop, dua lipa previews new blonde locks, blue ivy carter stars in ‘mufasa: the lion king’ & more | billboard news, taylor swift & travis kelce are busy ahead of ‘ttpd’ release, courtney love disses beyoncé & lana, dua lipa’s creativity behind “illusion” & more | billboard news, dua lipa on creative vision of ‘illusion,’ lyrics & music video | billboard news, dua lipa & zayn malik release new music, azealia banks & doechii are beefing & more | billboard news, dua lipa on new album ‘radical optimism,’ nicki nicole healing from split & more | billboard news, latest news, taylor swift rules billboard 200 for third week with ‘the tortured poets department’.

• By Keith Caulfield

SXSW Announces 2025 London Edition

• By Richard Smirke
• May 8, 2024 1:00 am

Dua Lipa’s ‘Radical Optimism’ Is Racing to U.K. No. 1

• By Lars Brandle
• May 7, 2024 11:32 pm

Dua Lipa, Chris Stapleton, Blink-182 & More to Headline Austin City Limits Music Festival 2024

• By Jessica Nicholson
• May 7, 2024 12:45 pm
• By Katie Cao
• May 6, 2024 7:52 pm

Dua Lipa Plays Surprise Pop-Up Times Square Show After ‘SNL’ Gig

• By Gil Kaufman
• May 6, 2024 9:17 am

Fans Choose Dua Lipa’s ‘Radical Optimism’ as This Week’s Favorite New Music in All-Genre Poll

• By Mitchell Peters
• May 5, 2024 5:14 pm

Dua Lipa Spreads Positivity While Explaining ‘Radical Optimism’ Album Title in ‘SNL’ Monologue: Watch

• May 5, 2024 4:25 pm

Dua Lipa Performs ‘Radical Optimism’ Songs While Pulling Double Duty as ‘SNL’ Host & Musical Guest: Watch

• May 5, 2024 2:43 pm

Dua Lipa Takes a ‘Deep Dive’ Into the Drake & Kendrick Lamar Beef on ‘SNL’: Watch

• May 5, 2024 1:29 pm

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Videos Expand videos menu

Culture expand culture menu, media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Get Up Anthems by Tres Expand get-up-anthems-by-tres menu

Honda music expand honda-music menu.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• What Is Cinema?
• Newsletters

How Dua Lipa Shut Down the Trolls and Conquered International Pop

By Erin Vanderhoof

Photography by Venetia Scott

Styled by Lorenzo Posocco

It was fall 2019 and Dua Lipa, the London-based pop singer, was having a rare moment of self-doubt. She had just scrubbed her Instagram clean, 21st-century pop-star code for symbolic rebirth, and was readying to release “Don’t Start Now,” the first single from her second record, Future Nostalgia. The follow-up to her well-received if not earth-shifting self-titled debut, this was meant to serve as an artistic coming of age: an exuberant statement aimed at pop charts that had been dominated by ballads and downcast hip-hop for a few years. The hardest work was done, and Lipa loved the song—a thumping, bittersweet dance floor anthem full of high-disco rattles and flourishes that had confidence to spare. Yet that October, she couldn’t shake a certain anxiety, one familiar to anyone who’s ever released a creative endeavor online.

“I was like, Oh, it’s very different to what people have heard from me,” Lipa said on a Zoom call from her London apartment in April. She sat on a couch under a playful wall sculpture, dressed in the immaculate loungewear she favored even before the pandemic. Between pauses to rein in her one-year-old rescue puppy, Dexter, she recalled that on the run-up to the song’s Halloween debut, her apprehension only grew. She tried meditation. She tried hypnotherapy.

“I think I just needed something to just calm my brain down and help me kind of get rid of any anxiety,” she said, “and almost be able to tell myself that everything that I’ve learned I could do in my sleep.”

Talking about all of this uncertainty in mid-2021 is of course a little absurd. “Don’t Start Now” would eventually go on to reach number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and amass nearly 1.5 billion combined streams on Spotify and YouTube as of this writing. Future Nostalgia, a dance record begging to be heard in the common space of the club, would nonetheless thrive amid quarantine to score a Grammy for best pop vocal album and unleash an extraordinary run of Top 40 singles. Along the way, Lipa became one of the first major pop stars to attempt an all-out promotional rollout from home. She appeared on late-night shows after doing her own hair and makeup, tearfully discussed her sadness about the moment on Instagram Live, and adapted to working via video call like the rest of us. The whole undertaking would turn Lipa from ambitious upstart to bona fide superstar.

That she had a pre-pandemic lesson in uncertainty might have helped her chart the course. Her longtime manager, Ben Mawson, told me that at first the team hesitated about going forward through the global shutdown, as many other artists chose to last year, but ultimately saw it as a unique opportunity. “She’d been waiting for this moment,” he said. “It was music that was uplifting and happy, and so we thought maybe the world needs this.”

To American listeners, Lipa’s success may seem to have come from nowhere. But her story is one of continent-crossing perseverance, a bit of luck, and one of those generational pop personalities who simply will not be denied. Future Nostalgia would have been an unusual record even if it hadn’t arrived at the beginning of a global crisis. It takes a buffet-table approach to the sonic decorations from decades’ worth of disco, funk, and synth pop while also showcasing Lipa’s keen ear for complex vocal melodies and her distinctively raspy and lithe voice. It marries the efficiency of structured pop with the curiosity of dance music, yet in between pulsing bass lines and naturalistic percussion, it’s full of silence: little spaces here and there that telegraph a breath before a song blooms into something new. Its emotional and dynamic range is broad, yet it all passes by effortlessly.

The record’s title came to Lipa before anything else. She almost used “future nostalgia” as a backdrop for a 2018 awards-show performance before deciding that she wanted to save it for something special. “I loved jumping into what felt like a story,” she said. “I’ve really loved the idea of Future Nostalgia having its own world.” Though Lipa worked with a long list of collaborators on the album, a core group of contributors from her 2017 debut, including songwriter Clarence Coffee Jr. and producer-writer Stephen “Koz” Kozmeniuk, returned to the studio with her for the Future Nostalgia sessions in summer 2018. Both said that the experience of working with Lipa is marked primarily by how fun it is. (“I have summer-camp vibes with one of my best friends,” Coffee told me.)

Koz was one of the first people she told about the title, and he said it was helpful in nailing a sonic palette. Lipa was struggling to express exactly how it would translate into music until a session where she, Coffee, Koz, and songwriter Sarah Hudson wrote “Levitating,” which would eventually become the album’s sixth single and a major hit. The bones of the song are audible on the first voice memo they recorded, and with the help of doughnuts and plenty of playing around, it came together in about a day. “The difference with Dua’s project, compared to a lot of other projects, it feels like you’re in a little band,” Koz said of the song. “I can still hear what the day was, I can hear the laughs, I can hear the jokes. It was a riot.”

Coat by Dior; shoes by Christian Louboutin.

Hudson and Coffee eventually gave Lipa a nameplate necklace that reads “Sugaboo,” the group’s studio term of endearment that made its way into the song’s chorus. Their bond, Lipa said, makes constructive criticism much easier. In that way, it’s also a strategy for keeping out doubt.

“There was just this pressure,” Lipa said. “People just telling me that I wasn’t good enough or that I wasn’t deserving of it or whatever it was…. I was like, ‘All right, I’m just going to shut everything out. And I’m going to make sure that I get this album the way that I want it to. And I’m really just going to focus on being great at everything that I do.’ ”

Lipa was born in London in 1995, about three years after her parents, Dukagjin and Anesa, emigrated from Pristina, a midsize city in Kosovo, then still part of Yugoslavia. Though the war that would make Kosovo a matter of global concern wouldn’t begin until 1998, Pristina in 1995 was already a difficult place to live for its ethnic Albanian majority. Dua’s grandfather, Seit Lipa, was head of the Institute for the History of Kosovo when it was targeted for closure by Serbian law in 1992, a move that a special rapporteur for the United Nations later called a sign of burgeoning human rights violations.

In London, where the family joined a growing exodus from Kosovo, Lipa’s parents spoke Albanian and raised her with an awareness of their culture. Dukagjin is a musician, and Lipa remembers a house full of music. In December, Anesa told CBS Sunday Morning that her daughter seemed destined to be a performer early on, and when I asked Lipa about it, she said, “Probably the amount of times I annoyingly interrupted her dinners at home with friends and was like, I’m going to put on a show now. ”

“Everything was Albanian at home, and English was my school life,” Lipa said. “I had so much family in Kosovo, but also because of the situation and not being able to go back, I had never really met my family.” Because she was young during the open conflict that lasted until the summer of 1999, Lipa didn’t know much about it. “I guess my parents also didn’t want to upset me at such a young age,” she said. “After the war, my dad’s father passed away and my dad couldn’t make it back in time, because obviously all the borders were closed, but it was just one of those things they didn’t tell me until a little bit later on.”

Still, Lipa always had a sense that she had another place to return to and was excited when the family, which by then included her younger siblings, Rina and Gjin, moved back when she was 11. “I was returning to a place where I almost already felt I belonged,” she said. “It was really exciting for me to get to go to a place where also I felt, in some way, I would be more normal.”

Coat by Khaite; shoes by Manolo Blahnik.

In Pristina, she became an amateur anthropologist of a culture she was already a part of. It started with the larger things, like realizing that her Albanian wasn’t yet up to snuff for academic work and struggling through a few years of bad grades. She also started to learn, via her friends, more about the region’s conflict. “These stories, they stay with you forever,” she said. “The people that they’d lost during the war, and the amount of friends I had that had lost their fathers or their uncles or brothers, or how people were violently taken away from their homes.”

She made friends and watched the way teenagers in the city coalesced in Mother Teresa Square. In the mid-aughts, a few prominent businessmen realized that bringing international artists to the country could help reassure the world that Kosovo was safe. Because hip-hop was easily the most popular genre there, 50 Cent became the first major star to perform in Pristina’s stadium in 2007. That show’s success led to more, and Lipa saw a pretty impressive list of American rappers such as Method Man and Redman and Snoop Dogg in concert before the age of 15. It was an early exposure to what it means when music functions as a universal language.

Lipa credits her time in Pristina with instilling her with political convictions. Though her music isn’t explicit on the topic and her persona as a pop star is slick and playful, she’s always been willing to take a side, even when it could spark controversy. Those who watch her closely will have noticed her full-throated support for Black Lives Matter, her enthusiasm for voting Labour in 2019, and her persistence in celebrating her Albanian identity despite occasional negative reactions to the symbology she’s used to express it.

“It mainly came because of my roots in Kosovo, and wanting to take a stand on that and talk about that and the refugee situation. And then slowly starting to understand how, you know, the politics of war, how that all happens, why so many children are displaced,” she said. “Things stemmed from a personal experience into then wanting to learn more and trying to also be a voice for lots of other people.”

It’s also a matter of using the platform she regards as a privilege: “As my profile is growing, especially online, I feel like I need to use that to do something better than, you know, posting cute pictures or whatever.”

In the weeks after our interview, Lipa continued to voice support for Palestinians suffering in Gaza and in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah as conflict erupted in both areas. In late May, a pro-Israel group called the World Values Network attacked Lipa—along with models (and sisters of her boyfriend, Anwar) Bella and Gigi Hadid, who are of Palestinian descent—in a rambling full-page New York Times ad that attempted to conflate Lipa’s stance with anti-Semitism. In a social media response, Lipa reiterated her principles of solidarity and justice. There was no question that she would remain committed to using that platform to speak on the issue.

Lipa’s political engagement—especially on the cause of universal health care—has led her to a friendship with U.S. senator Bernie Sanders. She campaigned for Sanders during his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, hosted video chats with him during the run-up to the general election, and he presented her with an award at the Billboard ceremony in December. Sanders took great umbrage with the ads.

“The attacks against Dua are outrageous,” Sanders said. “Simply saying that we must uphold international standards of human rights consistently, even when it’s politically difficult, is not anti-Semitism. The time is now to adopt an even-handed approach in the conflict, one that says Israel has the absolute right to live in peace and security, but so do the Palestinians. It is good that we are seeing the rise of a new generation of leaders, like Dua, who are speaking out in support of building a society based on human needs and political equality.”

Lipa was 12 and watching on TV in the family flat when Kosovo declared independence in February 2008. “I remember seeing the joy of my parents and my family and everybody, hearing the whole city roaring when Independence Day happened,” she said. But still, she felt a pull back to London. A few years later, she came up with a plan to return to the U.K. by herself. Her motivations were complex, but at their core, she thought it gave her the best chance of making it as a musician. Despite a decade of progress, Kosovo was still isolated and underdeveloped, and social media hadn’t yet transformed talent discovery. Lipa said she had to convince her parents with “a little conversation at a time,” but they eventually agreed when they realized she could move into an apartment with a family friend who was studying at the London School of Economics.

At 15, she left Pristina alone. She said that maybe she would have made a different choice if streaming had been the alternative route to mainstream success it is now, but it’s clear she was happy to return to England. Talking to her, one gets the distinct sense of dual Duas: If being an Albanian Kosovar is her ethnic identity, being British is her personality. It comes across in the small things—her enthusiasm for the NHS, her commitment to waiting her turn for the coronavirus vaccine, and her support for other young British artists, like Arlo Parks, whose song “Eugene” she sang on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge in April—and in the bigger ones, like her sheer love for the city of London. “I feel like my life will always be between two places,” she said.

Her solo move to London has become part of her lore because it was gutsy—and it’s made all the more impressive by the fact that it worked out almost exactly as she planned. She gave herself one year after finishing secondary school to find representation before considering another career path. Lipa was waiting tables in Soho and using her YouTube channel of cover songs as a portfolio when a friend helped her get a meeting with Mawson, a former entertainment lawyer who pivoted to management when he began working with Lana Del Rey. “She came into the room and she didn’t have much to play in the way of music, but it was her personality that drew me to her,” Mawson said. “She didn’t quite know what she wanted in granular terms, but the big picture was very clear—and the ambition.” He’s been her manager ever since.

Lipa started piecing together an album over years of sessions yielding about 160 songs with a wide array of songwriters. “I was just putting songs out in the hopes that they would just have a little bit more momentum than the last song,” she said. “Baby steps. Just a little bit more than the other ones. Just a couple more people. Sell out one more show, or have the rooms fill up just a little bit more.”

At 18, Lipa was usually the youngest person in the room. Kozmeniuk, who cowrote or produced four tracks on Future Nostalgia, first met her when she went to Toronto in October 2014. Koz recalled being impressed by her “cool, loving” personality, her voice—and her slight air of mystery. “It was just something so compelling right off the bat,” he said. “Other situations can be toxic, especially in the music business, so when you find little situations where it can be honest, where there’s freedom, people don’t get bent out of shape, it’s nice.”

Those early sessions were a proving ground for Lipa, who was well aware of the pitfalls and boxes that await young women breaking into the industry. “I was constantly being like, ‘This is me and I’m not manufactured,’ ” she said. “But it takes a lot of growth and time and effort and all of that until you get to a point where people say, ‘Okay, I believe you.’ ”

In the run-up to the release of her album in June 2017, she gained early traction with a mostly European audience as part of a wave of young female Brits who mixed EDM influences with bubbly pop songwriting. It wasn’t until a month after its release—when a female-empowerment slumber party video for “New Rules,” the album’s seventh single, went viral and brought the song to an American audience—that she really distinguished herself as an artist with a vision.

By the end of 2017, she had become Spotify’s most streamed female artist in the U.K., and by early 2018, the song had hit the Hot 100, peaking at number six. Global impact was part of the plan from the beginning, said Mawson. “There are a lot of British artists who count successes in the U.K., but we’re very much focused on the world, so we have that in mind when we work on music,” he added. “If we don’t have an American radio team totally confident, it’s not going to be a single.”

The momentum allowed Lipa to go into the studio for her second album with a new degree of freedom. (“Now I’m really allowed to do whatever the fuck I want,” she told GQ in January 2018.) But it also brought scrutiny. Over the course of 2018, a few backhanded YouTube comments and awkward performance clips became memes that had unusual staying power, even if their implication was a bit inscrutable.

One of the most lasting ones—“go girl give us nothing,” on a video of her at the 2018 Brit Awards—could be read as praise for her enrapturing nonchalance onstage, which really is different from the sillier person you might see on Instagram. But to Lipa, it also reflected what she saw as her own shortcomings in the period as her popularity ramped up and her schedule was stuffed.

“It’s one thing when people are mean about you, but you know that you did your best,” she said. “But it’s another thing when people are mean about you and you know that you actually haven’t had the opportunity to be the best because you’ve spread yourself so thinly in trying to do everything at once.” Though Lipa did take the criticism personally—she mentioned the “nothing” comment specifically—her takeaway is telling.

“You want to show that you’re here to stay and you want to show that it’s not just about one album or one big song or whatever it is,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure that this time around, I was very much in control of the fact that I’m going to do the music, then I’m going to rehearse. And then when I come in and I do the performances, they’re all going to be amazing. I’m going to prove to people that I can do this and that I’m here to stay.”

In March 2020 Lipa was on her way back to London from promoting the album in Australia. She was looking forward to spending a few weeks at home with Anwar Hadid, whom she began seeing in June 2019. Her return, it turns out, was a harbinger of the year to come: “I opened the front door to my house and all of a sudden, I can hear this water trickling…. And my whole apartment, it had flooded!” A pipe had burst above her apartment.

So when she performed “Don’t Start Now” on March 30 on James Corden’s late-night show, she was doing it from a precarious setup in an Airbnb. The Zoom call-esque production, which featured Lipa accompanied by her band and dancers in separate video squares, was a hit in those early quarantine days when late-night TV, and the rest of the world, was still on its heels.

“It was a really small, little studio flat,” she said. “I was balancing my iPhone on my laptop, using the little oven lights from behind to give me some ambience.” By the time she appeared on the Tonight Show a little over a week later, she was more confident and began to experiment with the form. The resulting performance played up the novelty of it all with a filter and green-screen effect.

With the help of her team, she kept coming up with more work-arounds. It seemed to distract her from the dislocation she felt being away from home and the stress of moving three more times during the U.K.’s first lockdown. Otherwise, it was a peaceful escape for the couple, where they indulged in a love of the card game Uno, did some painting, and enjoyed the unseasonably pleasant English springtime. “We got lucky,” she said. “Lots of being out in the garden, reading a book, and just chilling and listening to music.”

Even before the pandemic, Lipa and Hadid had never spent more than two weeks apart, unusual for a bicontinental relationship. On their respective Instagrams, Lipa and Hadid share a preternatural sense of cool and a few quirks from their upbringings. “Anwar is half Dutch, so he’s also quite European in some senses,” she said. In keeping with her general policy for posting on social media, she asks Hadid before sharing any photos of him, though she isn’t necessarily upset if he doesn’t do the same. “I always like to ask if he likes a picture before I post it. But I also think sometimes it’s sweet that he really likes kind of ugly pictures of me,” she said. “And I look at him, I’m like, ‘Really?’ And he’s like, ‘I love it.’ And then I let him post it, although I hate it.”

When the lockdown lifted in July, Lipa and Hadid returned to the U.S. after a brief quarantine in the Caribbean, and she got back to in-person work with strict precautions. First came Club Future Nostalgia, a remix album helmed by Marea Stamper, who DJs as the Blessed Madonna, which gave her an opportunity to extend the life of the record a bit, learn more about the technical aspects of remixing, and work with a few dream collaborators, like Madonna and Gwen Stefani.

Lipa’s sense of what will work on the dance floor—and her ability to translate that around the world—is reminiscent of Kylie Minogue, the Australian artist whose long career has made her the doyenne of dance-forward pop songs. So it’s only natural that Minogue took an interest in Lipa once she encountered her music. Eventually the two met and were able to collaborate in a distinctly 21st-century way, in a busy frenzy of remixes and Minogue’s guest appearance on Studio 2054, a livestream concert that attracted 5 million viewers in November.

“I think it works with how so many people hear music now,” Minogue told Vanity Fair of the circumstances that led her to work with Lipa. “She’s delivering quality all the way and I totally appreciate that even though she is making it look easy, it takes a lot of hard work and devotion.”

As Mawson pointed out, Lipa and her team were lucky to release the album at a time when other pop stars had decided to wait things out. Still, something about Future Nostalgia seems tailor-made for a moment when traditional sources of fun have shut down but you still need joy as a lifeline. Lipa lights up when she reminisces about the impromptu gatherings she’s seen coalesce around her: those teenage hangs in Mother Teresa Square, watching the 2014 World Cup broadcast in London. Before the pandemic, she would throw dinner parties and turn her apartment into a dance floor. “My flat is quite small. So it’s always quite fun when you just fill it up,” she said with a laugh. “It just gets fun and sweaty.” It might be why she was a perfect ambassador to a new way to party—“Club Living Room,” as her songwriting partner Coffee put it.

Over the course of the spring—in between writing and recording songs for another album, which Lipa has already given a title, currently known by only a few collaborators—she left the flat behind for a while and went on a victory lap befitting a global star, with blockbuster performances at the Grammys and the Brit Awards, and a performance at Elton John’s Oscar livestream that included two different high-collared Balenciaga gowns.

For an artist, something on the level of Future Nostalgia could represent the pinnacle of a pop career. It brought Lipa the respect she had been hoping for while giving her plenty of opportunities to have fun despite the difficulties of 2020. Now she’s in uncharted waters, and it’s up to her to find a place in pop’s pantheon.

On Oscar night, she stunned one of its longtime members. “She turned up so well prepared—and was a joy to sing with,” John told Vanity Fair. “Her musical chops are substantial. She has so much presence—an elegant poise and sophistication that belies her youth.”

“Dua,” John said, “can go wherever she wants!”

So while her ongoing project of world domination is still unfolding, her aims for the near term are slightly more concrete: two more albums and tours over the next few years. Lipa brought up acting or wine making as things she might one day try but emphasized that the music remains her focus. “I want to solidify myself as an artist in that aspect first, before anything else,” she said. “For now, I just wanna make sure the music is good.”

HAIR, LUKE HERSHESON; MAKEUP, LISA ELDRIDGE; MANICURE, MICHELLE HUMPHREY; TAILOR, ALICE RATCLIFFE; SET DESIGN, SEAN THOMSON. PRODUCED ON LOCATION BY ROSCO PRODUCTION. FOR DETAILS, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS.

— A Messy Vaccinated Wedding Season Has Arrived — How Harry and Meghan Decided On the Name Lilibet Diana — Black Joy Comes to Shakespeare in the Park — Even More Kanye West and Irina Shayk Details Emerge — The Bennifer Story Really Does Have Everything — Ahead of the Diana Tribute, Harry and William Are Still Working On Their Relationship — Tommy Dorfman on Rewriting Queer Narratives and the Smell of Good Sweat — From the Archive: A Spin on the Top DJs in the World — Sign up for the “Royal Watch” newsletter to receive all the chatter from Kensington Palace and beyond.

Erin Vanderhoof

Staff writer, royal watch.

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Kenzie Bryant

By Laura Regensdorf

By Britt Hennemuth

By Daniela Tijerina

• Music Artist

IMDbPro Starmeter Top 500 102

• Contact info
• 19 wins & 91 nominations

• Soundtrack ("Swan Song")

• Soundtrack ("No Lie")

• Dua Lipa (voice)

• Dua Lipa (singing voice)

• In-development projects at IMDbPro

Personal details

• Apple Music
• 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
• August 22 , 1995
• West Hampstead, London, England, UK
• Parents Dukagjin Lipa
• Relatives Rina Lipa (Sibling)
• Other works Print ads for Patrizia Pepe "Bang Bang".
• 3 Pictorials
• 9 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia Her family moved from London to Kosovo when she was age 11 until age 15 when she returned to London to pursue music.
• Quotes Is the only reason you're holding me tonight because we're scared to be lonely?
• Trademarks Mezzo-soprano vocal range
• How old is Dua Lipa?
• When was Dua Lipa born?
• Where was Dua Lipa born?

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Add demo reel with IMDbPro

How much have you seen?

Recently viewed

Join us on Social

NOMINATIONS*

66th annual grammy awards.

Song Of The Year

Dance the night (from barbie the album), best song written for visual media, dance the night [from "barbie the album"].

View All Nominations For This Artist

Through the 66th GRAMMY Awards

"Everything that I do is very autobiographical. I'm trying to be as much of an open book as possible and give the audience every single piece of me." — Dua Lipa

Born Aug. 22, 1995 in London, England to Albanian parents, Dua Lipa broke out with her massive hit "New Rules," which gave women and girls everywhere an anthem to move on from an ex. The song is from her 2017 self-titled debut album, which also features her platinum single "IDGAF." Lipa received her first-ever nominations at the 61st GRAMMY Awards .

Dua Lipa Videos

Dua lipa   news.

View All News

All GRAMMY Awards and Nominations for Dua Lipa

Nominations

More from the 66th awards, 63rd annual grammy awards.

61st Annual GRAMMY Awards

Award-winning English-Albanian pop singer with a string of chart smashes that carried her from the late-2010s into the 2020s.

Read Full Biography

STREAM OR BUY:

Related Artists

Discography, moods and themes, related articles.

See what Shop TODAY editors are loving! 23 Amazon finds to shop — from $6

• TODAY Plaza
• Share this —

• Watch Full Episodes
• Read With Jenna
• Inspirational
• Relationships
• TODAY Table
• Newsletters
• Start TODAY
• Shop TODAY Awards
• Citi Concert Series
• Listen All Day

Follow today

More Brands

• On The Show

Here's everything you need to know about pop sensation Dua Lipa before tonight's 'SNL'

“Saturday Night Live” will return tonight for the last episode of 2020 hosted by show alum Kristen Wiig with musical guest Dua Lipa.

If you're asking yourself, "Who is Dua Lipa?", have no fear. Here's everything you need to know about the talented 25-year-old before tonight's "SNL."

Who is Dua Lipa?

In 1995, Lipa was born in London to Albanian immigrants, Dukagjin and Anesa. (And yes, her real name is actually Dua Lipa. Her first name can be translated to mean "love" in Albanian.) She began performing at a young age, returning to Kosovo as a child. At 15, she ended up moving back to London to pursue a singing career and that is when she began posting videos of her singing covers to YouTube.

In a recent clip on WIRED's YouTube channel , Lipa said that she used these YouTube videos as "a form of a portfolio" to work with producers and get into the studio. After recording a few demos, Lipa eventually scored herself a record deal, releasing her first single “New Love” in August 2015.

Lipa released a series of singles leading up to her freshman eponymous album in 2017, including two of her breakout hits, “Hotter Than Hell” and “Blow Your Mind (Mwah).” Not long after, Lipa made history in 2018 for becoming the youngest female artist to hit one billion views on a music video, NME reported. The colorful choreographed video for “New Rules,” the sixth single off her first album, has now garnered more than two billion views on YouTube.

Lipa released her much-anticipated sophomore album, “Future Nostalgia,” at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The singer told People at the time that she felt a lot of pressure to deliver on her second album following the success of her first album.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have to try and do something with the second record,'" she said. "But I wanted to get away from all those pressures and other people’s expectations and opinions of what I should be doing because I felt like then I would try and recreate ‘New Rules’ and never get anywhere. I wanted to mature as an artist.”

All of Lipa’s hard work throughout the last five years has paid off. The critically-acclaimed '80s pop-fusion album earned the singer six Grammy nominations, including record of the year, album of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance, among others. But Lipa is no stranger to the Grammys. In 2019, she won not only best dance recording for her track with Diplo "Electricity," she also won the coveted award for best new artist as well.

Saturday won't be Lipa’s first time hitting the “SNL” stage either. The two-time Grammy winner was the musical guest on the show back in February 2018 alongside host Natalie Portman . That year, she performed her hit song “New Rules” followed by her ballad “Homesick,” co-written by Chris Martin from Coldplay.

Since June 2019, Lipa has been romantically linked to model Anwar Hadid, the brother of Gigi and Bella Hadid.

Francesca Gariano is a New York City-based freelance journalist reporting on culture, entertainment, beauty, lifestyle and wellness. She is a freelance contributor to TODAY.com, where she covers pop culture and breaking news.

7 856 750 fans

Listen to all of Dua Lipa's tracks on Deezer

Artist's top tracks, latest release.

New releases from Dua Lipa on Deezer

Radical Optimism

by Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa on tour

See Dua Lipa in concert

Popular albums

Most popular albums from Dua Lipa

Future Nostalgia (The Moonlight Edition)

Future Nostalgia

Dua Lipa (Complete Edition)

Club Future Nostalgia (DJ Mix)

by Dua Lipa , The Blessed Madonna

Dua Lipa (Deluxe)

Deezer Sessions

Live Acoustic EP

Sweetest Pie (David Guetta Remixes)

by Megan Thee Stallion , Dua Lipa , David Guetta

Dance The Night (From Barbie The Album)

Don't Start Now

by Calvin Harris , Dua Lipa

Similar artists

Find artists similar to Dua Lipa

395 035 fans

1 019 480 fans

Miley Cyrus

6 827 290 fans

Purple Disco Machine

110 678 fans

Meghan Trainor

1 609 983 fans

Benson Boone

111 981 fans

Sophie Ellis-Bextor

84 660 fans

Calvin Harris

11 881 878 fans

Zara Larsson

1 449 851 fans

Camila Cabello

3 598 744 fans

384 529 fans

314 012 fans

683 568 fans

116 856 fans

Playlists & music by Dua Lipa

80 tracks - 417 783 fans

50 tracks - 714 512 fans

Global Hits

50 tracks - 1 359 347 fans

Pop All Stars

50 tracks - 544 488 fans

80 tracks - 206 205 fans

60 tracks - 554 488 fans

80 tracks - 193 490 fans

Les titres du moment

60 tracks - 10 272 388 fans

50 tracks - 402 253 fans

50 tracks - 21 817 fans

60 tracks - 149 860 fans

50 tracks - 123 935 fans

Feel Good Commute

50 tracks - 9 346 fans

HITS 2024 - Today's Top Songs

61 tracks - 1 618 fans

Summer Vibes

64 tracks - 30 366 fans

Featured in

Listen to Dua Lipa on Deezer

Illusion (feat. Dua Lipa) [Sped Up Version]

by sped up nightcore , Dua Lipa

Training Season (feat. Dua Lipa) (Sped Up Version)

Houdini (feat. Dua Lipa) (Sped Up Version)

SUGAR (Remix) [feat. Dua Lipa] (feat. Dua Lipa)

by BROCKHAMPTON , Dua Lipa

Electricity (feat. Diplo, Dua Lipa & Mark Ronson) (The Black Madonna Remix)

by Silk City , Diplo , Dua Lipa , Mark Ronson

Electricity (feat. Diplo, Dua Lipa & Mark Ronson) (Acoustic)

No Lie (Remixes)

by Sean Paul , Dua Lipa

Viral Summer Hits

by Various Artists

Born in London to Albanian parents, Dua Lipa began her music career posting videos of herself performing on YouTube. Unlike so many others who try to start the same way, Lipa's talent was noticed and she signed a recording deal with Warner Bros., releasing her debut single 'New Love' with the second, 'Be the One', following shortly after. 'Be the One' did extremely well in the charts, reaching number one in several European countries and number nine in the UK. She went on tour in 2016 to promote her music and was named one of the BBC's Sounds of 2016. Singles 'Last Dance' and 'Hotter Than Hell' were released in 2016 with the latter reaching number 15 in the UK. She collaborated with Sean Paul on the single 'No Lie' and later with Martin Garrix on 'Scared to Be Lonely'. In 2017 she released her debut self-titled album. Her heart breaks were caused by Dr Prvyz Artist biography compiled by BDS/West 10. All rights reserved

Sign up to listen to the full track

No payment required

Dua Lipa’s Third Album, ‘Radical Optimism,’ Is Here

By Tomás Mier

The glass is half full: Dua Lipa has dropped Radical Optimism ! On Friday, the British singer officially released her third studio album, led by singles “Houdini,” “Training Season,” and “Illusion.”

The album was co-produced by Danny L Harle, Kevin Parker, Andrew Wyatt, and Ian Kirkpatrick and features 11 tracks that came from writing sessions that date as back as 2021. Among the tracks on the album are songs such as “End of an Era,” which she told Rolling Stone last month “was just the maddest one when we were mixing it. I listened to that one over and over again,” and “Maria,” which she said “feels very mature in the sense of growing and seeing relationships from a different perspective.”

The artwork for   Radical Optimism  sees Lipa looking serene as she wades next to the approaching fin of a great white. “When all the images got developed, this one was the one that jumped out. I was like, ‘This is what the album represents,’” she explained. “It is that feeling of chaos and danger and unexpected things coming into your periphery and remaining calm in the face of it. It felt powerful to me.”

Trump Says He’d Deport ‘Anti-American’ Protesters in Bizarre Rally Speech

Kelly clarkson wins key rulings ahead of new trial with ex-husband, hear the journey tune steve perry rerecorded with steve lukather's son, see foo fighters pull 'eruption' prank with wolfgang van halen at welcome to rockville.

Radical Optimism joins 2017’s Dua Lipa and 2020’s Future Nostalgia as Lipa’s full-length projects. Lipa kicked off the Radical era when she dropped “Houdini” in November 2023. After “ Houdini ” came “ Training Season ” in February 2024, which she performed at the Grammys and Brits . Lastly, she dropped the most recent single, “ Illusion ,” in mid-April.

Lipa will celebrate the release of Radical Optimism this weekend at Saturday Night Live , serving as both the musical guest and celebrity host for the evening. She’ll also connect with fans with a special Instagram Story colaboration.

Touch and Go’s Corey Rusk Remembers ‘Supernaturally Talented’ Friend Steve Albini

• In Memoriam
• By Althea Legaspi

See Foo Fighters Pull 'Eruption' Prank With Wolfgang Van Halen at Welcome to Rockville

• punk'd
• By Daniel Kreps

Switzerland's Nemo Wins 2024 Eurovision Song Contest

• Eurovision 2024
• By Larisha Paul and Althea Legaspi

Watch Taylor Swift Play ‘Hey Stephen,’ ‘Maroon’ at Eras Tour in Paris

• Penultimate Paris Date

See Jelly Roll Join Limp Bizkit to Cover the Who at Welcome to Rockville

Most popular, emily blunt says she's 'absolutely' wanted to throw up after kissing certain actors during filming: 'i've definitely not enjoyed some of it.', peter jackson working on new 'lord of the rings' films for warner bros., targeting 2026 debut, a rare photo of tom cruise with his 2 oldest kids gives a glimpse into their relationship with their dad, near the giza pyramids, archaeologists identify a newly discovered ancient egyptian structure, you might also like, china box office: ‘kingdom of the planet of the apes’ opens on top of weekend chart, exclusive: elsa hosk teams with heavy manners for retro-inspired swimwear collection — ‘it’s my favorite collab i’ve ever done’, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, amy poehler wants ‘inside out’ series to be like michael apted’s ‘up’ saga, show character riley as ‘a young adult, and a young mother’, atlanta hawks land top pick in french-heavy 2024 nba draft.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

• Bodybuilder
• Sports Stars
• News Anchor
• Director/Producer
• Diet Dictionary

Dua Lipa Height, Weight, Age, Body Statistics

Dua Lipa is an English singer, songwriter, and model who has established herself as one of the most successful artists of her time and has won at least two Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, two MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award, and an American Music Award. She shot to fame with the release of her first studio album in 2017 and in 2018, Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa released the song,  One Kiss , which became the longest-running number-one single for a female artist in 2018.

Dua Lipa (Pronounced as Doer Leaper )

Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

Nationality

Until 13 years of age, Dua went to the  Sylvia Young Theatre School  in London. She also studied at  Parliament Hill School .

Singer, Songwriter, Former Model

• Father –  Dukagjin Lipa (Marketing Manager, Rock Singer, Lead vocalist in the Kosovan rock band Oda )
• Mother – Anesa Lipa (Has worked in tourism)
• Siblings –  Gjin Lipa (Younger Brother), Rina Lipa (Younger Sister)
• Others – Seit Lipa (Paternal Grandfather) (Historian, Head of the Bosnian Institute of History)

As a model, she was signed with these modeling agencies –

• Next Model Management – New York
• Next Model Management – Paris
• Next Model Management – Milan
• Next Model Management – London
• Next Model Management – Miami

As a singer, she was previously represented by Ben Mawson and Ed Millet of TAP Management. In February 2022, it was revealed that she had parted ways with the firm. Later that month, it was reported that she had signed her father Dukagijn to be her new interim manager.

Pop, indie pop, dream pop, synthpop, R&B

Instruments

Warner Bros. Records, Vertigo Records

5 ft 8 in or 173 cm

63 kg or 139 lbs

Boyfriend / Spouse

Dua Lipa has dated –

• Isaac Carew (2015-2017, 2018-2019) – British chef and model, Isaac Carew and Dua dated from 2015 to March 2017. They reconciled and resumed their relationship in early 2018. They again split in 2019.
• Chris Martin (2017) – Coldplay singer Chris Martin and Dua were rumored to be dating each other in the summer of 2017 when they allegedly kissed each other during a party inside the VIP room.
• Paul Klein (2017-2018) – In August 2017, she started dating the lead singer of the LANY band, Paul Klein. Just after dating for 5 months, the couple separated in January 2018.
• Anwar Hadid (2019-2021) – In June 2019, model Anwar Hadid and Dua started dating each other. There were some pregnancy rumors in January 2021 due to Dua’s little baby bottle emoji in her tweets. In December 2021, it was reported that the couple was taking a break from their relationship.
• Trevor Noah (2022) – In September 2022, Dua was rumored to be dating comedian Trevor Noah after they were spotted together in New York City.
• Jack Harlow   (2022) – RUMOR
• Romain Gavras (2023) – In February 2023, Dua was rumored to be dating music video director Romain Gavras after they were seen holding hands while leaving the Saint Laurent’s Paris Fashion Week show. They made their red carpet debut as a couple at the Omar La Fraise (The King of Algiers) premiere during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. She made her relationship Instagram official in May 2023. In December 2023, it was reported that the couple had broken up.
• Callum Turner (2024-Present) – In January 2024, Dua was rumored to be dating actor Callum Turner after they were seen together during the premiere of the TV series Masters of the Air . Later that month, their relationship was confirmed after they were spotted kissing during a date night in West Hollywood, California.

Race / Ethnicity

She has Albanian ancestry as her parents are from Kosovo.

Light Brown

Sexual Orientation

Distinctive features.

• Thick eyebrows
• Sultry voice

Measurements

36-26-35 in or 91.5-66-89 cm

6 (US) or 38 (EU)

7 (US) or 4.5 (UK) or 37.5 (EU)

Best Known For

• Her songs like “Be the One,” “Hotter Than Hell,” “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)”, etc.
• She is also known for her modeling gigs.

First Album

She released her eponymous debut album, Dua Lipa ,   in 2017 via Warner Bros. which contains songs like “Hotter Than Hell,” “Be the One,” etc. The album was placed at number #9 in  Rolling Stone ‘s list of “20 Best Pop Albums of 2017” and also won the LOS40 Music Award for “International Album of the Year”.

First TV Show

Lipa first appeared in a TV show in 2016 in the documentary comedy show  Le grand journal de Canal+  as herself in an episode dated April 12, 2016.

Personal Trainer

Dua exercises which she revealed via a tweet in August 2016.

Her eating plan is not known. But, she is a foodie and it is one of the reasons, she left modeling.

Dua Lipa Favorite Things

• Food – Cheese Pizza, chips
• TV Show – Gossip Girl (2007-2012)
• 90s Actresses – Chloe Sevigny , Drew Barrymore ,  Kate Moss
• Beauty Accessory To Wear – Individual eyelashes
• Artists – Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons
• Rappers –  A$AP Rocky , Schoolboy Q , Chance The Rapper
• Singers – Nelly Furtado, Pink
• Song – Hotter Than Hell
• Emoji – Fire

Source – Daily Telegraph , Allure , Nylon , BuzzFeed

Dua Lipa Facts

• At 13 (in 2008), she relocated from London, England to the Republic of Kosovo but came back to London at 16.
• She started posting covers of famous songs by  Christina Aguilera and Nelly Furtado at 14 years of age.
• Lipa started modeling in her late teen years.
• At 15, she had worked as a waitress in London.
• Lana Del Rey  assisted Dua in her first song “New Love.” She is often compared with Lana.
• She went on a Suburbia Tour of singer Troye Sivan in November 2016 in Canada and the U.S. and did the opening act.
• She has many tattoos on her various body parts including forearms and shoulders.
• Her first name is Albanian which means “Love.”
• In the mid-2010s, she left modeling to focus on her singing career.
• At 15, she  assaulted a police officer by unintentionally throwing foam out of the bubble bath.
• Her parents shaved her head when she was 6.
• Dua had opened the MTV EMA Awards 2019.
• She released her 2nd studio album,  Future Nostalgia , on March 27, 2020, and it included tracks like  Don’t Start Now ,  Future Nostalgia ,  Break My Heart ,  Love Again , and  Boys Will Be Boys .
• Dua Lipa had won the Powerhouse Award at the 2020 Billboard’s Women in Music event.
• In November 2020, her virtual event, Studio 2054 broke the global live stream record with more than 5 million views. The event included performances by popular celebrities like FKA Twigs , Elton John , Miley Cyrus , and Kylie Minogue .
• Dua was 4th most streamed female artist on Spotify in 2020. Billie Eilish held the 1st spot with the most streams.
• During the 2021 Grammys, she received nominations under 6 categories, viz., “Album of the Year”, “Best Pop Vocal Album”, “Record of the Year”, “Song of the Year”, Best Pop Solo Performance”, and “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance”.
• She has a dog named Dexter.
• She has been vocal about her political views and has criticized leaders like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro.
• She supported Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election.
• Dua graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine’s February 2021 issue.
• In February 2021, Dua released a new song We’re Good which is from the album Future Nostalgia: The Moonlight Edition , her second studio album.
• During the 2021 Grammy Awards, Dua took music manager Ben Mawson (instead of her then-boyfriend Anwar Hadid) as her Grammy’s date. Ben Mawson is the co-founder of Tap Music and has managed artists like Lana Del Rey and Ellie Goulding .
• Dua had won the “Best Pop Vocal Album” award during Grammys 2021 for her album Future Nostalgia .
• In May 2021, she won the Brit Awards in the categories “British Female Solo Artist” and “British Album of the Year” for her album  Future Nostalgia .
• In September 2021, Dua made her runway debut for  Versace during the Milan Fashion Week in Milan, Italy.
• In March 2022, the reggae band Artikal Sound System had filed a lawsuit against Dua Lipa for alleged plagiarism in her hit song, Levitating . The band claimed that her song was similar to their 2017 song, Live Your Life .
• In March 2022, Dua and Megan Thee Stallion released the music video of their new single titled  Sweetest Pie .
• In May 2022, Dua teamed up with Calvin Harris for a new single titled  Potion .
• In November 2022, Dua was granted citizenship to Albania.
• In May 2023, Dua released a new song titled  Dance The Night . The song was featured in the soundtrack of the 2023 film,  Barbie .
• In May 2023, Dua co-designed the “La Vacanza” women’s collection with Donatella Versace .
• In November 2023, Dua released a new single titled  Houdini .
• In December 2023, Dua went to Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India for a vacation.
• In February 2024, Dua released a new track titled Training Season .

Did we miss anyone?

RELATED ARTICLES

Tiakola height, weight, age, facts, family, bandman kevo height, weight, age, wife, tattoos, children, mina sue choi height, weight, age, education, biography, 12 comments.

She can’t be 128 lb or size 6 !!! She looks Medium (size 8) and weigh around 145 or more

Well, it s written 63 kg or 139 pounds. Not 128. She does not look 128, anyway – she has very chubby legs. She might be 140-145, not more. I am 5 ft 11 in and 140-142 lbs, and I m size 8

Omg u are very tall I’m petite compared to u (5 ft 5 in)

I agree there is no way she could be that light

you look so beautiful,dua!

When you eat chips Dua you mean French fries not Pringles. Is that true? Please reply back.

I’d like to ask you a question Staff: When she eats chips she means French fries not Pringles. Is that correct? Please answer me.

Dua just said ‘Chips’ in the interview. There is no clarity if she really likes Pringles or not.

Yes, this is true

why should height and weight matter in society. As long as their a healthy weight, it doesn’t matter how much they weigh.

Stunning and above anything amazing singer songwriter can’t wait for her to come back to Glasgow so I can take my daughter to see you again

She is amassing, so hot, sings so well, plays so well…She is very, very beautiful and clever.

LEAVE A REPLY Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Recent Articles

Mike evans height, weight, age, net worth, wife, anmol kharb height, weight, age, coach, facts, family, purpled height, weight, age, facts, real name, family, sylveey height, weight, age, facts, family.

© Copyright 2024 - Healthy Celeb

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Where does Dua Lipa’s feel-good music fit in our feel-bad world?

Her new album, “Radical Optimism,” pushes against the dour mood dominating today’s pop.

In popland, the ruling class continues to make album covers at sea. The artwork for SZA’s long-tail blockbuster, 2022’s “ SOS ,” finds the singer plopped on a plank, gazing out at an oceanic vastness meant to represent our alienating and unknowable world. On the cover of Billie Eilish’s upcoming “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” the pop star is submerged in dark water, sinking into a liquid dream. As for the cover of Dua Lipa’s latest, “Radical Optimism,” it was photographed at the waterline, depicting the 28-year-old from the shoulders up in golden evening wear, staring down a shark’s dorsal fin as it slices in her direction. If this image isn’t trying to evoke a scene from an old James Bond movie, it’s a comment on optimism in an age of grievance and paranoia, right? The glass is half full, but the water is still teeming with stuff that wants to kill you.

Or maybe even that read is too cynical. Nobody’s out for blood on “Radical Optimism,” especially not the woman holding the microphone, whose melodic buoyancy and lyrical comity feel like stealth counterprogramming to all the sour grapes piling up inside today’s tower of song. You know who I’m talking about. Taylor Swift is mad at her exes. Beyoncé is mad at awards shows. Drake and Kendrick Lamar are mad at each other. Blah-blah-blah, boohoo. It would have been so easy for Lipa to swoop into this miserable scene like Glinda the Good Witch in disco pants, but thankfully, she doesn’t. The songs on “Radical Optimism” have a pep that’s never goody-goody or try-hard, no matter how out of sync this music might be with the dank mood wafting up and down the pop charts. Obviously, refusing to feel sorry for yourself on the Hot 100 isn’t radical , but there’s still some kind of statement being made here.

Also, watching someone jump too high over a low bar can be fun. “I don’t believe that every flame has to get colder,” Lipa sings in “ Falling Forever ,” the most heart-swollen moment on this otherwise highly aerodynamic collection of up-and-down love songs. Even the breakup tracks lean brisk and danceable. “We call it love but hate it here,” Lipa sings in the galloping “ These Walls ” — and check out how she can’t sing the word “hate” in the song’s second verse without putting a squeaky little teakettle puff on it. She needs that heavy word for the story she’s telling, but she won’t allow the English language to drag the music down. Her production team — a cast that includes Kevin Parker of Tame Impala and Tobias Jesso Jr. — are every bit as detail-minded, and all together, everyone keeps their heads bowed to the ’80s, evoking Tina Turner on “ Whatcha Doing ,” Prince on “ Anything for Love ” and some iteration of Madonna nearly everywhere else.

A recent cover story in Rolling Stone recounts Lipa’s meticulous studio habits, but far more revealing was the singer’s explanation of how her parents fleeing Kosovo in the early 1990s instilled in her a solidarity with those displaced in Israel’s war on Gaza. “I feel for people who have to leave their home,” Lipa said. “From my experience of being in Kosovo and understanding what war does, no one really wants to leave their home. They do it for protection, to save their family, to look after the people around them, that kind of thing, for a better life. So I feel close to it.”

So she’s worldly. And empathetic. And aware. She has a position on the state of our messed-up, freaked-out society. But if Lipa doesn’t put any of those thoughts and beliefs directly into her lyrics, are they still in her music somewhere? Maybe I’m the one being too optimistic now, but I say yes. There’s an inherent generosity in creating something reliable and well-crafted in a chaotic and careless world — a world in which the powerful disgrace us all through war and injustice, but also in which there are still car stereos, and karaoke machines, and spin classes, and Friday nights, and strangers to dance with. Good pop music need not save the world, just improve it. Even just a little.

• Share full article

For more audio journalism and storytelling, download New York Times Audio , a new iOS app available for news subscribers.

• May 10, 2024   •   9:13 New to Eurovision? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
• May 8, 2024   •   5:54 Dua Lipa’s New Album Is Nonstop Ear Candy
• May 7, 2024   •   8:07 The Fall Guy Steps Into the Spotlight
• May 4, 2024   •   9:08 Fashion’s Biggest Night: Your Guide to This Year’s Met Gala
• May 3, 2024   •   6:34 In His New Song, Johnny Cash Goes to the Laundromat
• May 1, 2024   •   10:26 In Children’s TV, Dads Get to Have All the Fun
• April 30, 2024   •   9:23 A Poem About You, for You
• April 27, 2024   •   8:36 ‘Challengers’ Is Sexy … but Is It Good Tennis?
• April 26, 2024   •   8:47 How TikTok Changed American Culture
• April 25, 2024   •   14:15 Alicia Keys on Reimagining ‘Fallin’’ for Broadway
• April 20, 2024   •   8:57 Taylor Swift’s New Album Reviewed
• April 18, 2024   •   11:46 What (We Think) We Know About Taylor Swift’s New Album

Dua Lipa’s New Album Is Nonstop Ear Candy

Our music critic reviews “radical optimism.”.

Produced by Sara Curtis

Edited by Tina Antolini

Engineered by Sophia Lanman

Featuring Jon Pareles

Dua Lipa just released her third studio album, “Radical Optimism.” While Lipa’s earlier releases sometimes tackled powerlessness and sexism, this one sticks entirely to romance.

Built for the dance floor, “Radical Optimism” harks back to 20th-century pop with meticulously crafted songs and huge electronic sounds. Our chief pop music critic, Jon Pareles, says that for all the production effort involved in creating this music, Lipa “makes the whole album sound like fun, not work.”

On today’s episode

Jon Pareles is the chief pop music critic at The Times.

Additional reading

Jon Pareles’s review of ‘Radical Optimism’

The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Jon Pareles has been The Times’s chief pop music critic since 1988. He studied music, played in rock, jazz and classical groups and was a college-radio disc jockey. He was previously an editor at Rolling Stone and the Village Voice. More about Jon Pareles

Advertisement

Dua Lipa is a pop star with no lore on ‘Radical Optimism’

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

Dua Lipa’s “Radical Optimism” has a hilarious album cover, two songs about illusionists and what may end up the year’s most succulent bass playing. What it doesn’t have is the kind of detailed celebrity meta-narrative that’s come to define — and to propel — the superstar pop LP in music’s parasocial age.

The 28-year-old London-born singer might disagree: On the cusp of her Saturn return, Lipa has been talking up her third studio album as a meditation on hard-won emotional maturity à la Ariana Grande’s “Eternal Sunshine” or Kacey Musgraves’ “ Deeper Well .” “Radical optimism in the way that I see it,” she told Zane Lowe, “is this idea of rolling with the punches.” The LP’s cover shows her bobbing in the sea dangerously close to a shark’s fin, and I guess the shark represents the punches?

Yet because Lipa’s lyrics are very bad — “If these walls could talk, they’d tell us to break up,” she sings at one point — this concept doesn’t really come together. And, besides, a quest for emotional maturity really misses the whole point of Dua Lipa, which is being coolly above it all in the pursuit of earthly pleasure. Her celebrity lore, to the extent that it exists, revolves around her identity as the Vacanza Queen, as she’s known on social media thanks to her fabulous Instagram photo dumps.

So “Radical Optimism” raises an interesting question: In this era of the endlessly annotated “ The Tortured Poets Department ” — not to mention the downright scholarly “ Cowboy Carter ” — can a pop album succeed without functioning as a referendum on fame or as a work of musicology? Is it enough just to deliver a bunch of loosely connected bangers and bops?

At its best, “Radical Optimism” answers yes — or at least makes you want the answer to be yes. Lipa has style and attitude to spare; her singing is sly, throaty, slightly Bond-girl conspiratorial. Working with a crafty studio team led by Andrew Wyatt (who co-wrote and co-produced Lipa’s “Barbie” smash “Dance the Night”) and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, she fills these 11 songs with a wonderful array of sounds and textures: tick-tocking drums, silky guitars, synths that sparkle and growl. And those bass lines! Truly nasty stuff.

Despite Lipa’s proclamation in a recent interview with The Times that she’d moved away from disco, the album is firmly rooted on the dance floor, though it does lean more toward live instrumentation than 2020’s Grammy-winning “Future Nostalgia.” “These Walls” is a shimmering soft-rock jam with echoes of Fleetwood Mac, while “Anything for Love” starts out as a spare piano ballad before blossoming into chewy, “Off the Wall”-ish funk.

The songs are about learning to understand the limits of romance. But we know so little about Lipa’s personal life as compared to Grande’s or Taylor Swift’s, for instance, that her comically dull revelations carry no charge. Here’s how she describes arriving at a state of post-breakup acceptance in “Happy for You”:

Late on a Tuesday, I saw your picture

You were so happy, I could just tell

She’s really pretty, I think she’s a model

Baby, together you look hot as hell

On the other hand, there’s something deeply refreshing about the opportunity “Radical Optimism” offers to ignore all the superstar mythologizing and simply take in Lipa’s music as theater — to savor its energy and color the way we once did ABBA, to name one clear influence from a time when music made far more room for fantasy. (See also: Tori Kelly’s “Tori,” a vivid and inviting new pop album that exists almost entirely outside the celebrity-industrial complex.)

None of the singles from “Radical Optimism” have burned up the charts yet: “ Illusion ,” the album’s latest, sits at No. 78 this week on Billboard’s Hot 100, while “Houdini” fell off the tally after only a few months — a startlingly short run given the year-plus Lipa clocked with “Levitating” and “Don’t Start Now.” But those songs came before the full footnote-ification of pop that arguably began with Swift’s so-called Taylor’s Versions of her old albums. Now everything is a text to be scrutinized, whether the work can bear it or not.

More to Read

Taylor Swift’s new album is rife with breakup songs. Psychologists explain why we love them

April 19, 2024

Taylor Swift turns heel, owning her chaos and messiness on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

April 18, 2024

A little too obsessed with Taylor Swift? It might be a coping mechanism

April 11, 2024

The biggest entertainment stories

Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Mikael Wood is pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

World & Nation

Switzerland’s Nemo wins 68th Eurovision Song Contest after event roiled by protests over Gaza war

May 11, 2024

Shaquille O’Neal-Shannon Sharpe beef reaches diss track level. Here’s how we got here

May 10, 2024

After shooting, Drake’s mansion gets second trespasser in two days, police confirm

Entertainment & Arts

Sorry, not twins: Justin Bieber’s mom clarifies, there’s only one baby on the way

Dua Lipa's Radical Chart Achievements | Billboard Explains

With Dua Lipa's new album Radical Optimism coming out this Friday, we take a look back at her chart accomplishments, including debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 and breaking records with songs such as "Levitating."

Throughout the whole record, there's this idea of chaos happening around, and me trying to push through it in a way that feels authentic and honest.

Dua Lipa is gearing up to release her new album, Radical Optimism , so we're taking a look back at her chart accomplishments. This is Billboard Explains: Dua Lipa's Radical Charter Achievements.

Dua Lipa made her Billboard Hot 100 debut with "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)." The song peaked at No. 72 in November 2016. Since then, she's racked up 23 career entries on the Hot 100, including five top 10s; "New Rules," that reached No. 6; "Don't Start Now" peaked at No. 2 and "Levitating," which also hit No. 2, just to name a few.

"Levitating" was a massive success for Dua on the charts. Not only was it the year-end No. 1 Hot 100 Song of 2021, it holds the record as the longest charting song among women in the Billboard Hot 100 history, with 77 weeks total. It also holds the record for the most weeks spent in the top 10 of the Hot 100 in history among women, with 41 weeks.

Over on the Pop Airplay chart, Dua holds 23 career entries with five No. 1 songs, including "Break My Heart" and "Dance the Night."

Plus, she has three charting albums on the Billboard 200 including one top 10 with Future Nostalgia , that peaked at No. 3.

We'll have to wait and see where Radical Optimism takes Dua next on the Billboard charts.

More from Billboard

• Steve Aoki Has No Problem Using Artificial Intelligence To Build Tracks: 'You Can't Stop AI... You Just Have To Ride The Wave'
• Eagles Fly Back Onto Charts With 'To the Limit: The Essential Collection'
• Taylor Swift Sets Single-Week Streaming Record With 'The Tortured Poets Department'

Dua Lipa’s Complete Dating History

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Dua Lipa has had quite a few public relationships with fellow musicians, models, actors, and even a director. But she keeps most of her comments about her love life to her music.

“We have all these incredible memories and experiences, and if there’s something that we want to share together, then OK that’s fun,” she said. “But at the same time, we’re quite private—we’ll only show you as much as we want you to see.”

She added, “It’s a little bit of give and take, trying to find the right balance of being so excited and being in love, and wanting to share that with the people around me, but at the same time not wanting to put too much out there. I want to be able to just be happy in this relationship without having other people’s opinions.”

Here’s a complete history of what Lipa has chosen to share over the years regarding her relationships, from Isaac Carew to her current boyfriend, Callum Turner.

Paul Klein: 2017-2018

Anwar hadid: 2019-2021, jack harlow: 2022, romain gavras: 2023, callum turner 2024, more deep dives on dua lipa.

Dua Lipa Is Ms. Bright Side

In her May 2024 ELLE cover story, Lipa talks Radical Optimism .

All About Callum Turner, Dua Lipa’s Boyfriend

Get to know the actor that has won over Lipa.

Dua Lipa Is Ready For the Party On the Other Side

Revisit Lipa’s 2020 cover story with ELLE, where the singer discussed Future Nostalgia .

Isaac Carew: 2015-2017 and 2018-2019

Lipa dated British model and chef Isaac Carew twice, first starting in 2015. They broke up, supposedly because of scheduling issues. But in May 2018, they were seen out again at Soho House together. He was her date at several high-profile events afterward, including the 2019 Grammys and the Met Gala that year.

However, scheduling issues reportedly led to their second breakup.

A source told The Sun , “Dua and Isaac have really struggled to see each other since getting back together. They wanted to make things work, and things were great between them for a while, but she is just getting busier and busier.”

“She is gearing up to release new music and has basically been performing across the world non-stop for the past three years so it’s been tough,” they added. “It’s been a difficult decision, but ultimately, they haven’t been able to make things work.”

In July 2019, Lipa was seen kissing Anwar Hadid in London at a music festival.

Model and musician Paul Klein is the lead singer of LANY. In January 2018, the couple broke up after five months of dating. A source told The Sun that they “had a really good time together,” but “things just didn’t work out.”

Soon after, Lipa was dating Carew again, though they ultimately split for good in 2019.

Klein took a break from social media the month he split with the singer, then wrote in a now-deleted post on Instagram in July 2018 that his “heart got ripped right out of my f-cking chest and the internet was the last thing i needed.”

The post served as an announcement for his song “Thru These Tears.”

That same month in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar , he said he wrote the entire album, Malibu Nights , within 50 days of breaking up with Lipa.

“I never felt a pain like that. I’m not trying to be dramatic here,” he said. “I think that was the first time I’ve ever been in love, and I never felt anything like that in my life.”

When asked about the album in an interview with SCMP , she said, “I haven’t really heard it.”

Anwar Hadid, the brother of Gigi and Bella Hadid, was one of Lipa’s longest public relationships. Rumors started circulating about them when they were spotted at Gigi’s birthday party in June that year and then again at a music festival in London that July.

In 2020, the couple quarantined together, and she told People it gave her a chance to get to know him better.

“It’s been really great—easy and fun and chill,” she said. “We’ve been making the most of this because we got all this extra time that we weren’t expecting to just hang out. It’s been an absolute blast, and we’re learning so much more about each other.”

The couple paused their relationship in late 2021. A source told People , “Dua and Anwar are currently taking a break from their relationship and are spending time apart. They’re figuring things out right now.”

A source confirmed to Us Weekly in December 2021 that they had officially split. In June 2022, she told Vogue that she was focusing on herself as a single lady, adding, “The next chapter of my life is about truly being good with being alone.”

It was briefly rumored that rapper Jack Harlow and Lipa were “hanging out” in December 2022, after they made an appearance at Variety ’s Hitmakers brunch. It all started when Harlow released a song called “Dua Lipa,” rapping that he wants more than “a feature.”

In May 2022, Harlow said on The Breakfast Club that he got her approval before releasing the song so she wouldn’t “be blindsided by that or feel like creeped out or anything.”

“If she had said, ‘Yo, I hate it. I don’t want it to come out,’ it wouldn’t have come out,” he said. “She was like, ‘Oh, I mean it’s not my song. I suppose it’s okay.’ She was just kinda thrown off, and she just kinda let it go.”

They kept communicating, and Harlow allegedly was very intent on pursuing her. A source told Page Six that Harlow was “very interested in her and was going to strongly pursue [the romance]...he is going to do his best, as he has always been a fan of her.”

But a few months later, it seemed as though things fizzled out.

French director Romain Gavras was first linked to Lipa in February 2023, when they were seen leaving a BAFTAs afterparty in London together, according to Daily Mail .

In May, they made a big splash at the Cannes Film Festival, walking the red carpet together. They were photographed in London again in July, and he reportedly met her family over the summer when they celebrated his August birthday. But she has since deleted the Instagram post commemorating the moment.

In December 2023, a source told The Sun that the couple had parted ways after a fun summer together.

“Dua and Romain have gone their separate ways after a summer of love,” the source claimed. “She has blinkers on when it comes to her career, and the pair ended the relationship before things turned sour. Romain considered Dua to be a workaholic, but she doesn’t plan on slowing down for anything or anyone.”

In January 2024, Lipa was seen with actor Callum Turner at an after-party celebrating the premiere of Apple TV+ series Masters of Air. Footage shared by TMZ showed them seemingly getting close at Avra in Beverly Hills. A few days later, she had a more official date with him at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, where he was speaking at a Q&A.

“Callum is really the first serious relationship she’s had in the past few years,” a source told Us Weekly in March. “Dua and Callum spend almost all their time together and are nearly inseparable.”

The insider said they’ve traveled together and met each other’s families, adding that “the attraction is definitely there.”

Since then, the couple has become much more public, attending events together, including the April 2024 TIME100 gala , where Lipa was one of the night’s honorees.

Celebrity Relationship Timelines 2022

A Timeline of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s Romance

A Full History of Gigi and Zayn's Relationship

Justin and Hailey Bieber’s Relationship Timeline

Everything to Know About Damiano David

Sam Smith and Christian Cowan’s Complete Timeline

A Timeline of Barry Keoghan and Sabrina Carpenter

All About Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini

Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky’s Timeline

Meet Cherry Seaborn, Ed Sheeran's Wife and Muse

All About Hilary Duff's Husband

About Phoebe Dynevor’s Fiancé, Cameron Fuller