Dua Lipa ismid-sentence when Bleachers frontman( and patron to the stars) Jack Antonoff interrupts ourpost-photoshoot discussion in a near coffee shop to mound praise on the recently formed pop sensation. “ I had no idea that he indeed knew who I was, ” the 22- time-old Brit whispers, hiding her mouth behind her hands in genuine shock.
It’s not indeed a time since the release of her tone- named debut reader, but it’s the kind of hassle Lipa should get used to. She’s formerly at the point in her youthful career that more seasoned stagers spend times seeking to hit. And she’s earned it, too With an incontrovertibly massive megahit single under her belt — we ’re talking about “ New Rules ” then, the catchiest way to educate your kiddies how to count to three since Sesame Street’s florescence — and a modest- sized but important collection of songs that mean business( the eternally trendy Miguel duet “ Lost in Your Light ” and the guitar- licked salutation “ IDGAF ” among them), Dua Lipa is a rare first- time- around success story.
With an observance for songwriting( I dare you to name an reader that’s as chock-full of untouchable choruses as hers) and a rich, subtly husky voice that stands out among a homogenized, Spotify- primed crop of fellow youthful vocalizers, Dua Lipa’s principally the coolest thing around. During our converse in late November, she told GQ each about the wild “ New Rules ” lift, her studies on success, and how effects might be a little different as she begins work on her alternate reader.
I do. The first song they played on the radio was “ Be the One. ” I knew it was gon na get played on the radio because it was being premiered by Annie Mac. I was in the plant that day, and because I knew exactly what time her radio niche is, I treated myself to a hack and made sure “ Please can you turn the radio on? ” The whole way home, I had the radio on and I was staying, and I was staying, and I was staying, and they still had n’t played the song. I ’d arrived home, I snappily ran through the door, turned the radio on, and the song started playing! I collapsed on the bottom and I was in gashes, and I just could n’t believe what was passing. It was so instigative.
Do you feel else now, hearing your songs on the radio?
I still feel just as agitated, but I tend to make jokes about it. So I guess the last time I heard( “ New Rules ”), I was on my way to the field. I was in London. I was like, “ I fucking love this song. ” And everybody in the auto was like, “ Are you kidding me? ”
Let’s talk about “ New Rules. ” Did that come out of after sessions?
That came out of after sessions, and it was also the last, final drive where I did my last two passages toL.A. and I got “ I Do n’t Give a Fuck ”( her single “ IDGAF ”), I did “ Lost in Your Light, ” and I did “ Homesick ” and “ Begging. ” It was really those last many passages that really kind of solidified and closed the reader for me, which I was really thankful for.
I ’d been delaying the reader. I wanted lots of new songs on there. I did n’t just want to fill it with “ The Very bravery Of! ” So it gave me the occasion to add lots of new songs. It’s also the reason I got the tattoo “ tolerance ” on my hand So I can flash back . But yeah, “ New Rules ” it’s crazy, really, what that song’s done, because I could n’t have made this shit up.
Dua, all the gays saw this one coming.
laughs) Really? But I suppose it was the videotape, you know? The reader came out, and it surely streamed really well, but I always knew it was going to be the single. I just did n’t anticipate it to do this. But I do n’t suppose anybody really expects a song to go as crazy as it does when they first release it, unless they ’re a psychic.
The last time you and I gabbled, you said commodity intriguing about songwriting. What you told me also and you may have a different perspective on it now is that you preferred the songs of yours that you ’d had a hand in jotting. And with “ New Rules, ” you didn’t. I did not.
But that song feels invested with your DNA. It feels like yours. Has your perspective changed on songwriting?
I suppose it’s surely changed. I still take a lot of pride in being suitable to write my own songs. My story’s coming from me. But “ New Rules ” is a song that I felt like I had been in the room and written. I ’m so close with Emily( Warren) and Caroline( Ailin) and Ian( Kirkpatrick), who had worked on it, that I feel like it was a song they had written with me in mind. I ’m proud of it as if I had been in that room. I just feel so close to it. I guess I do n’t have that perspective presently. But like I said, I still love writing everything. And I ’m still going to do it. But it’s a song that I feel like I can relate to on a particular position, and I also feel that when I do perform it, it becomes mine and I embody it in a different way.
When did you realize, when you put the videotape out, what it was gon na do?
It was really quick because none of my vids had ever done anything like that. So numerous cool womanish artists were reaching out. Lorde said it was one of her favorite vids she ’d seen, and Zara Larsson was reaching out. The communication of the videotape is “ Girls supporting each other, ” so it meant so important to me when other womanish artists truly had my reverse. I suppose it all just happed so presto. I did n’t anticipate it. But I still did n’t anticipate it to go to number one in teak. I did n’t!
I no way really wanted to predicate success on maps and map positioning. For me, it’s really about the shows and seeing them grow.
What does success look like for you?
It’s veritably particular. Success to me is just doing effects that I ’m really proud of. I feel like I still have littlemini-victories, where I ’m like, “ Oh, I ’m so happy that I did that, ” and it does n’t inescapably mean the map positioning.
I know it’s crazy, but I was onstage in Antwerp, and I do n’t know what it was, but it was this crazy ecstatic feeling when I was onstage where it just hit me. It was surely the biggest show I ’d played on that stint, and it just hit me that I was n’t supporting on that stage, but everybody was there to see me. And I just welled up and I was crying on stage( laughs) and I could n’t breathe. But I said to myself to noway forget that moment, ever in my life, because it really meant so important to me.
What does pop, as a kidney, mean to you moment?
It’s surely changed. I suppose the artists are really the face of the music they make. It’s no longer the kidney that dictates it. Artists have a lot further creative latitude, and the number one this week is gon na sound nothing like the number one coming week. I suppose that’s what’s so magical about what’s passing. You noway really know what’s going to be the coming big thing.
How do you feel like you fit into that new pop geography also?
Well, I always want to be suitable to resuscitate myself, but in a way that feels authentic to me and commodity that I can identify with. My idea of pop has beenP!nk and Christina Aguilera and fortune’s Child and Nelly Furtado, but it’s also taking that ultramodern- day twist, where you ’re allowed to be a bit more audacious and you ’re allowed to talk about different gests , particular gests , which is commodity that P! nk did so impeccably. I feel in a time like now, you’re really suitable to talk about everything and anything in the stopgap that notoriety might be suitable to relate to it.
My place? I guess I just want to be suitable to make music that’s empowering, but I also do n’t want to limit myself to being someone that just makes empowering songs. I want to be suitable to write songs that can also bring you down and they kind of hurt at some point. It depends on how people take it. I just want to play around.
I do n’t want to be forgotten. I want to keep releasing music, and not every single song that you release is gon na be like, “ Oh, this is the song going to the radio! ” It’s just releasing music because you love releasing music, and you love playing around. There are just so numerous artists and so important alleviation to be had that’s so brilliant that I suppose that’s what pop music is, is innovative.
When you say you do n’t want to be forgotten, that links up with how we consume pop now. The model is “ further, more, more. ” It’s like that stretch in which Rihanna put an reader out every single time. We ’ve come inextinguishable for content. Is that commodity you ’ve had to be aware of? The moment I finished the first reader and I was flying back fromL.A. to London, I felt this sense of clarity that I was suitable to close that chapter in my life and write about fully newexperiences.However, so be it, If I can finish the record while I ’m traveling and doing stuff and always be suitable to come up with new music whenever the time is right.
I suppose I ’ve been so lucky to be suitable to release an reader because I feel like they ’re sluggishly dying. I feel like, because I released my first one, this allows me to have a alternate and a third and keep going on the reader cycle. But you could also do the Drake thing, which is to always release songs while you ’re working on an reader and they do n’t have to have anything to do with the reader when it comes out.
I suppose everybody’s got a different way. There are so numerous possibilities in music. I feel like my aspect of it is, I always either want to be on the road or I do n’t really want to take a break. So, also, has the success of “ New Rules ” in your mind — or in the marker’s mind — come into play when it comes to talking about Album Two? No. Well, actually, it might have been done in a way, I guess. Now I ’m really allowed to do whatever the fuck I want.