When Dua Lipa released her debut album, self-titled Dua Lipa, in 2017 she had already found global success with early singles Be the One, Hotter than Hell and Blow Your Mind (Mwah). But it wasn’t until the release of New Rules a month after her album dropped that Lipa emerged as a pop giant. The track earned Lipa her first number one single in the UK and became one of the most memorable songs of the summer that year. Despite its successes, New Rules was, and still is, Lipa’s weakest song.
While the track works well for radio, it became evident that the song just wasn’t that good in Lipa’s live performance of the break-up anthem on Saturday Night Live. The song does nothing to highlight Lipa’s impressive vocals (they’re especially beautiful in her rendition of I’d Rather Go Blind from her Live Acoustic EP) and it appears that no matter how much you try and dress up a performance of New Rules with backing singers and questionable choreography, the song is actually pretty dull.
New Rules is something of a double-edged sword for Lipa. While it propelled her into superstardom, earning her widespread acclaim, it also pushed her towards becoming something she ultimately wasn’t – at least then, anyway. The decision for Lipa to add ‘dancer’ to her repertoire stemmed from the need to become a well-rounded performer to make up for the lack of vocal excitement New Rules brought when performed live. She needed to become someone who sings, dances and compels a crowd to distract from the weak single, perhaps also to try and keep up with other pop legends such as Ariana Grande, Beyoncé and Little Mix. Despite the stage props and the dancers behind her, Lipa was still missing something in her live performances. That something, looking back, appeared to be time. All she needed was the time to really perfect this new style of performing she wanted to continue with because now, Lipa has proven that she can do it.
Perhaps she was uncomfortable and not entirely confident with the new ‘dancer’ persona she had adopted following the ‘pop super star’ title she had gained from the successes of New Rules. She continued to choreograph her live performances, still struggling to fit into the new mould she had created for herself. Lipa was slated far and wide across the internet for a performance – you know the one - of her 2018 single with Calvin Harris, One Kiss, in which her lack of stage presence and unpolished, poorly choreographed dance moves stole all the focus away from her vocals.
I imagine that seeing the reaction to that performance must have been pretty awful for Lipa. Her weak dance moves are not entirely at fault for the bad performance. The choreography was messy from the beginning and even the backing dancers manage to do a pretty poor job. But something must have clicked within Lipa’s team - she had three options: continue with what she was doing and risk her entire career to become a laughing stock across the internet; scrap all choreography and go back to being just a singer; or accept the criticism and take the time to learn from it.
Lipa’s performance at the MTV EMAs in late 2019 of Don’t Start Now, taken from her upcoming second album, proved that Lipa chose to accept the constructive criticism she had received over the past two years and instead of negating it, she acted upon it. Lipa has worked on her stage presence and her dance abilities – and she has worked hard.
Dua Lipa’s latest releases Future Nostalgia and Don’t Start Now present us with a more polished pop star. Especially on Future Nostalgia, the disco-inspired track that may have appeared to be a risky move to some as it strays away from her usual sound, Lipa makes it clear that she is confident in the new direction she is taking her music in. Don’t Start Now mixes Lipa’s more typical dance-pop style with a groovy bass riff and the EMAs performance of the track gives us reason to be excited for her second LP.
Dua Lipa, the album, remains to this day one of my favourites from the last decade, even with the blip that is New Rules. It is (mostly) lyrically impressive, with stellar vocals and oozing with charm from Lipa who is undoubtedly a pop sensation. The anticipation for the next record, Future Nostalgia, is extremely high, but if the singles Lipa has already released ahead of the album’s drop are anything to go by, it surely won’t disappoint.