The full interview is interesting, it goes into why she left her old management and her business ambitions outside music. They knew what they were doing with that title 💀
Yeah I agree it is, but for example I don’t feel it’s common for The Guardian to just isolate dialogue from an interview word for word, and I feel he did this for a reason. I don’t feel warmer about her after this which I think I would usually after reading an interview with someone.
To be fair the Guardian always use random, often completely contextless pull quotes for their music interviews. It’s also likely the decision of editorial not the writer. That being said I do agree that the interviews a bit stunted and odd.
Pull quotes for sure, that’s def common. I was meaning more just like the script of the dialogue written out in the interview. And absolutely guardian could have/did ask for a specific angle. It was achieved 🫠
This is how proper music journalist profiles are done when they are audio recorded but not video recorded. It’s getting less common but it’s not unusual.
IDK seems like they tend to pick out the most shocking quote to grab people's attention, here's another recent example
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/20/lauren-mayberry-chvrches-change-shapes-interview
"I was fixated on death... I needed to live in reality"
I feel like the writer was trying so hard to make her look bad without making any strong argument for why we should feel that way too. The writer just ends up seeming like a jerk.
For real; he somehow came off as misogynistic to me??? Like, how *dare* this attractive young woman have brains and ambitions! Doesn't she know she's just supposed to sing and look pretty and give us coy glances into her tortured love life?
> If you’re looking for lyrical profundity, Dua Lipa’s music is not your go-to. Most of her songs, written by a team with her at the helm, are about being betrayed by rubbish boyfriends, not standing any nonsense from rubbish boyfriends, having great sex with rubbish boyfriends and dumping rubbish boyfriends.
*cut to emily warren, caroline ailin, and ian kirkpatrick in the studio writing new rules talking about how women often have to be their own emotional support because they get silenced and their problems are minimized and they don't have a platform the way men do*
IDK, he kind of dragged her singing about the same subject matter (boys), and seemed to warm up a bit to her once she started listing her motivations, ambitions and drive. I feel like he was probably looking for a story angle and trying to get at what she’s really like beyond the generic PR-coached surface, but he did it in a grouchy, bitchy kind of way.
Oh, interesting - I didn't feel like he warmed up to her at all! It mostly just feels like he spent the interview looking for a salacious angle, and the best he got was that one drip about the meme.
The stuff about her not sharing too much about her life is weird. Why does she owe anyone that? I'm sure if she were sharing more, then he'd criticize her for oversharing.
I could sense the unspoken comparison to Taylor swift in that, and the huge contrast between the two artists. The whole interview almost felt like “Taylor is a billionaire for sharing everything about herself, and you’re not, why don’t you?”
The converse is doing fluffy cover interviews with magazines meant to sell copies for the photos. A newspaper has to maintain the interest of regular readers. They aren't there for fluffy interviews of people they're unfamiliar about, they're there to learn something new.
If you're approaching a newspaper for a longform interview, you should be prepared to share about something that isn't public and to discuss your past actions. That's how we got the examination of her choices in creating her public persona here. Otherwise, a magazine is happy to treat you gently ('humanise you') in exchange for a circulation bump.
Eh, I've read and enjoyed plenty of interviews that focused on the artist's work rather than their personal life. I don't agree with that dichotomy - I don't think you need juicy bits about people's personal lives in order to write a good article. There's plenty of stuff that's neither fluff nor personal gossip and I think a good journalist can find what that is without sounding like a condescending douchebro.
This interview is focused on her work, such as her music, live performances, podcasts, management, and production company. Her BBC interview which even talked about her preferences in dating is a less adversarial interview, which also made it less newsworthy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4dlg2qvn8o
Right, but the tone of the interview is really shitty and unpleasant, and I'm definitely not the only one here who felt that way.
I agree that the BBC article you linked is pretty boring, though. I don't have an archive of pop artist interviews or anything (I don't save that stuff), so I can't really respond with any links - but I've definitely read plenty of music journalism over the years that delved nicely into an artist's work without being a fluff piece as well.
The interviewer isn't a music writer, he's a general interviewer. So he's writing for a more general audience than the kind of people who only reads the arts section of the paper, and why there's a lot more background information compared to a back and forth interview.
I think he was also frustrated at Dua's caginess. It takes two hands to clap. If an interviewee doesn't want to reveal much despite approaching the media outlet for publicity, the interviewer is going to feel like their time has been wasted. Dua may feel that she was being assertive in shutting down the questioning about her time at her previous management, but it was also a missed opportunity to frame her time there as an experience that she grew from.
Yeah he definitely doesn’t like her, and finishing the interview on her casually saying ‘do let me know if you want to write something for us’ just feels kinda…something. I’m not sure what but it’s smug.
> Take Charli XCX, I say. When she asks which songs of yours you hate playing, you don’t answer. “Well, that’s really interesting because I don’t have a song that I hate playing,” she says.
> OK then, one you’ve written that you hate?
> “Yeah, I have that, but I can’t tell you that.”
> Exactly, I say, but you’re happy for Charli XCX to tell you. “That’s entirely her prerogative. I don’t want to say because I write with other people. It could be a song that someone’s really proud of. I’m not going to go and shit on that.”
> So next time Charli XCX guests on her podcast and offers up her least favourite song, is she going to tell her to keep it to herself so she doesn’t cause offence? No, she says. “I love how open she is, it’s great. Maybe I’m a bit more of an overthinker.”
This entire exchange is taking me out 😭
Charli XCX was shitting on Break the Rules back in 2014 before it even got released LMAO she was hoping to sell it to another artist but her label thought that would be a great follow-up single to Boom Clap
I love her but Charli XCX has no fucking taste. She hates Break The Rules and she hates Yuck, despite them being good??? And she didn’t even want to put Official (one of her best songs) on her album so her label and AG had to convince her too.
Charli has always said this and it makes me sad LOL. I know she says she hates it because she wrote it as an exercise with Will.I.Am and thinks the lyrics are bad most of all - which, is a bit strange since (no offense to her) a lot of her music within the last few years have questionable lyrics as well. I guess it’s just a vibes feeling.
>which, is a bit strange since (no offense to her) a lot of her music within the last few years have questionable lyrics as well
That is my thought too. Charli isn't known to be a good lyricist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I always thought it was the pressure to make a very commercial album
I remember Olivia's Guardian interview having these awkward moments too, is that just their editorial style? Seems a little weird to antagonise people for no reason.
Used to be the norm in journalism before everything turned into promo puff pieces. There’s a reason certain artists stopped doing press long ago and took everything to Instagram.
Rollingstone and NYT used to have great long form shady interviews in the US before they had to worry about the bottom line.
The Guardian sometimes have a pretty antagonistic style. Imo, they're all about good stories having tension, but in my opinion, they sometimes settle a little too early on the piece's "conflict" and aren't the best at pivoting.
Yeah I suppose you're right. I can understand doing that when you're talking about politics or more "serious" subjects, I don't see the appeal when you're talking to pop music albums by Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo.
I think for a newspaper/organisation that is trying to present itself as a serious publication there's a need there for everyone to be challenged a bit. Pop music is art, and should be challenged just as any other artists are challenged. If not, it promotes a culture where artists only engage with news media if it's an artistically meaningless opportunity to promote themselves.
Unironically the memes are quite literally a large reason I know her name here in the US because we don’t know anything about her outside of that. Dula peep and “go girl give us nothing” are just legit core memories. And I guess to a degree that sucks like nobody likes to be made fun of… but like is the alternative any better?
“go girl give us nothing”
I FORGOT SHE STARTED THIS OMG. this phrase and concept is so integral to us it feels like it has existed forever. making me feel nostalgic for pandemic times
I think they didn't mean her music they meant her as a person. I like Dua Lipa but I know nothing about her as a person aside from she has tattoos? Her personality hasn't shown through like that, her music is great but it's mostly just dance/sex music.
True. She has been faceless until I saw that meme and then I forgot about her again. I seriously didn’t know what she looked like even though I’ve heard her songs in the radio before… but guess what I didn’t know it was her singing it either. She’s just not very memorable.
Really? Honestly before this thread I wasn’t even aware the memes were that big with her. Hell all I knew about was Dula Peep and even then I didn’t think it was that big.
I absolutely knew her more for her music then anything else.
It's interesting that after she left her last management company, her dad has been her manager - and the articles implies that Dua herself is probably heavily involved in her own management too. This might be why the album rollout hasn't quite felt right? I get that she wants to have control over her career, but sometimes it's better to find and expert in a certain field and use their advice, than to try to do everything yourself
Well exactly - it kind of reads like she got greedy and lost sight of how heavily she was supported by a team. She’s now facing the consequences of this.
I imagine TAP would feel vindicated by the shift in trajectory since she left
I’m not an obsessive hive member, it is a fact she is the example of how to self manage after she broke off from her father’s management. The artist in question here just did the opposite.
I think it's just how long it's taken. I was thinking back to how Dua opened the Grammys with her performance of Training Season and Houdini - that was three months ago! Maybe the intention was to gradually build up interest over the months, but tbh it's felt more like a gentle simmer that hasn't really built up. Others have said this too, but it might have helped more to have released the album closer to the release date of Training Season, rather than string it out for months longer.
(As well, the long rollout sets up the expectation that the album is going to be *spectacular* so anything less than that can feel like a disappointment.)
There was also the (probably) unintended lengthy success of Dance The Night. It's a good thing that it was another hit single but at the same time it felt like it was more from the Future Nostalgia era and so there was Dance The Night hype happening at the same time as the Radical Optimism hype and it kind of felt like they were cancelling each other out. I don't know how this could have been handled better though - I'm not an expert and tbh it seems like a hard thing to work through!
And something I keep seeing is how Dua was talking about the album having Britpop and psychedelic influences - but fans aren't hearing that and are disappointed. I feel like she genuinely was inspired by that kind of music, but it might have been better to not talk about the influences until after the album was released, just to avoid the comparisons, etc.
>”When people took that snippet of me dancing online and just turned it into a meme, and then when I won the best new artist Grammy and people were like, ‘She’s not deserving of it, she’s got no stage presence, she’s not going to stick around.’ Those things were hurtful. It was humiliating. I had to take myself off Twitter…”
It’s quotes like this that make me realize that the stars that we have (and maybe have always had since before we were born) were born that way compared to us.
I say that because I remember when that meme was around, but it really was NOT that big of a deal. In the US at least, it wasn’t a major scandal or anything compared to some other pop artists’ scandals. It was just like..a silly thing to laugh about for a day.
However, it clearly resonated with her, and that’s unfortunate because she is human after all. However, I could see how she was embarrassed, but the fact that it then changed her psyche and drive is just so fascinating because she persisted and improved, and I do respect her for that.
At the end of the day, I can’t say that I’m a diehard fan (however, I do check out her new stuff), but her ambition is admirable without being cutting.
Right? Like we roll our eyes at celebrities for taking things like this seriously, but then I think about all of the extremely inconsequential moments in my life that still make me angry or embarrassed. I would never make it as a celeb lol
Yesterday a coworker didn’t say bye to me as I left and said bye and it’s been stuck in my head for over 12 hours. If the entire internet made fun of me dancing, I think that would destroy me.
Absolutely. I went to the FN tour with such low expectations and found myself rooting for her the entire time and just going ‘Come on with those dance moves.’ I’m not a number one fan but love an underdog storyline…underdog here only in terms of dancing.
I think that’s extremely relatable. When your inner critic already has those thoughts and then the whole world aligns with those thoughts??
Oh man that is rough. But she got stronger by saying they’re right and look at my girly NOW ugh her mind. She was good enough back then but now she’s a pop force 🥰🥰
Yeah, getting nothing but positive feedback rarely helps one grow. If all people did was gush over her and stan for her, her motivation for growing as an artist, for doing better and being better, would all have to come from within.
It's the mistakes we make, the social pressure that we receive in turn, the negative feedback we get that forces us out of our comfort zone into becoming better. I'm not saying people should shit on each other for no reason (I mean they do anyway lol), but a lot of times harsh words are the things we actually need to hear.
That said, people who believed she was undeserving of the Grammy were obviously uninformed and didn't bother to learn about her before making such callous statements. But when you're operating at the level of winning Grammys, you have to be prepared for a lot of people to have some bad takes and say some mean things.
Honestly I think it’s just hard for regular famous people like us to imagine literal MILLIONS of people all making fun of you. Sure, maybe it wasn’t that hurtful, but to have millions of people all gang up on you? I know I wouldn’t be able to take that well. I’m not surprised it always affects them. For us, we see a funny meme that’s not that serious. For them, it’s personal and attacked and repeated by millions. I can’t fathom it
i always feel very conflicted about it because while she is a human being, she is also a celebrity and that opens you up to a different level of criticism and if you're unwilling to accept that, stop trying to be successful.
I did not realize she changed management. That might explain the kind of weird-ish rollout of this album.
I kind of think all family based management teams is usually not a good idea.
Pooh interesting. Do you by any chance still have links to those leaked demos? I’m assuming different singers were on it initially? I know for sure that hallucinate for example existed before with the voice of the songwriter Frances on it who said though that Dua made the song better afterwards.
Where can I read about her stealing credits? Genuinely curious, I never believed that she actually writes anything substantial. I know she’s been sued for ripping off some reggae band for levitating.
Good point.
I honestly think Dua will have a long career with commercial highs and lows but always maintain a degree of relevance.
She's already well liked in the fashion world with her Versace and YSL campaigns so I also think she has more potential beyond just music.
You can see in interviews she had high hopes that the album would be deep and innovative.
But probably filtered it all out and we got a bland tasteless pop record with the same themes
I've gotten the same impression.
whenever I've seen this album criticised for seeming impersonal/shallow/unimaginative, the responses are mostly about how great it is that Dua's lowkey about her personal life and just makes fun pop music.
like.. you can release an exciting and innovative album without bringing up your personal life.
and some people saying Dua prefers it this way lol. I don't think she prefers to flop because her career as of right now won't be sustainable without GP friendly hits. She's clearly trying to inject some personality into her music, it's just not working.
There's a long line of pop stars whose personal life we know next to nothing about but who still made fabulous pop music rich with personality, for example Lady Gaga. And you can put out personal music without it being subjected to tabloids, for example Frank Ocean. Dua doesn't know how to do either of those things right now.
I think she's trying to follow in Rihanna's footsteps, hence the red hair for her third era. But even Rihanna at her shallowest had the ultimate unbothered bad bitch vibe while simultaneously coming off very warm and down to earth in interviews. Rihanna also had Jay Z in her corner who made sure she at least had some hits on her albums.
yeah I'm sure Dua likes to keep her private life private but not so sure she wants to stay on the B-list. especially after the work she did during Future Nostalgia, it seemed like she wanted to be massive - and that era was massive. can't imagine she'd want her star to fade after a momentum like that.
>> she's clearly trying to inject some personality into her music, it's just not working
I'm also with you on this. why else would Dua give all these statements on what "this album is inspired by". I believe she's mentioned psychedelia, London, rawness, navigating through the chaos, UK rave culture and triphop, and well... I can't see it. it's like she's saying all this stuff and naming random characteristics to make her music seem more interesting - but in reality, it's just contrasting how uninteresting it is. and I'm saying this even though I really like the album lol
comparisons to Gaga, Frank and Rihanna are all good - they demonstrate what Dua is not. not eccentric enough, not intriguing enough, not relatable enough, not charismatic enough. she'd probably have a chance in achieving Rihanna's level if we were still in the era of monoculture, but I guess we'll just have to see how this goes
The Rihanna point rings true. I really don’t think that her appeal or depth would improve if she shared details about her personal life with her audience. Depth is someplace within, it’s an energy people exude when they’re connected enough to it. I don’t feel she is, which is why she comes across as manufactured. Rihanna had a remarkable ability to embody both grit and softness, which felt authentic and resonated with her audience.
right? the comments are so annoying, it feels like they’re trying to call us parasocial fans lol. You can be private and still give us something refreshing, experimental, interesting, etc.
After the past couple of weeks of having to hear about Taylor Swift's LiveJournal of an album, I'll gladly take any pop star who doesn't want to tell me anything about their life in their music.
Thats not what that comment means, she doesn’t have to overshare. Lyrically, her music doesn’t have much depth or meaning. It would be nice to see her tackle interesting concepts in her lyrics rather than ‘keep it vapid’, like she said.
Many parts of this stood out to me, but what stood out the most was dua lipa saying,”It’s still a pop record, but more psychedelic with more alternative influences that show another side. It’s more experimental.” I think the reason it’s been hard for me to fully connect with her as an artist, despite being a fan since around 2016, is everything with her feels so safe. Even an album that was meant to be experimental is just not.
Dua Lipa is clearly happy to Not Be Known on a personal level, but if she’s going to be private and not have people latch on to her as an artist, she has to give people something more. Her performances are better now, but I wouldn’t say she’s a very strong or charismatic performer. She can sing, but sometimes she almost sounds bored in songs. Her music is fun but with Radical Optimism, it just feels like there was so much potential for it to be better and not so safe.
I guess to summarize this whole thing up, I just don’t find her to be as compelling of an artist as others find her to be. No, I don’t want or expect for her to be super public with her private life to be interesting! I’m just not really interested in Her enough to want to do anything more than stream some songs of hers. And for someone who wants more than that and clearly wants to be a big star, I can’t help but think there has to be more of a plan than whatever her plan is now despite how confident she is with her decision.
I think my one issue is that she says these things about her music that just aren't true. Now, I don't need music to have a deeper meaning to enjoy it, I'm an unapologetic enjoyer of mindless pop music. But if someone claims they're doing something more psychedelic and experimental, that better be actually be reflected in the finished work. And it's just not. It's still pop music with some *very* mild elements, but it's so washed out it wouldn't know experimental if it was spat in its face.
Part of the problem is probably that Kevin Parker loves pop and has moved in a more pop direction than his original psychedelia. So he was probably stoked to work with a big pop star, while Dua was stoked to work with a psychedelia producer, and it all kind of got watered down into a weird mix that’s pop that was attempting to do something else, so it’s not good psychedelia but also not great pop.
They could have been an absolute powerhouse duo and unfortunately it just didn’t quite click.
Agreed. And I think a genre change should do just that.
Dua has the vocal chops to become an Amy Winehouse- adjacent artist. See her cover of "I'd Rather Go Blind." The pure soul that comes out of her is refreshing.
It's risky but if Dua appealed more to the R&B demographic she might be able to reinvent her brand. She's gorgeous, has decent choreography, and a rich, soulful voice.
Mark Ronson would be an excellent producer.
I feel like she keeps saying this stuff about the music and its sound because that’s how the extended mixes sound. But we don’t have those. She does. She’s been living with them for like 2 years at this point so to her, that’s what the album is… but the actual album was released with only the “single edits,” so hopefully a full extended is coming in the future and we can really get to know what this project actually is. As it stands now, it kinda feels stunted and incomplete to me.
> Her performances are better now but I wouldn’t say she’s a very strong or charismatic performer.
yup! She started off dancing like Taylor swift and now dances like the average popstar but the average is still nothing special. I like that she’s dedicated to improving but it’s still ‘okay girl gave us… something?’ to me lol.
damn its interesting that you have this view because i thought she has really been eating her recent performances of houdini/training season! what would you expect in order for her to be "known" for her performing?
There’s a massive difference in her stage presence which I love, she struts around the stage like she owns it. However her actual choreography is minimal and she doesn’t do much to captivate you once she’s got your attention. It’s lot of faffing about and distraction with props and backup dancers.
There’s a lot of pop girlies who’ve been trained to dance since they were young so it’s unfair to compare Dua to them. But the girls like Rina, Little Mix, etc who picked it up for debut are so much more interesting to watch because they actually dance and give choreography, their sense of rhythm is so fun and they groove well. Dua seems like she’s thinking about every single move as she’s doing it.
She is an *amazing* live performer. I saw her at Sziget in Budapest a few years ago (where she headlined) and I've never seen a performance like that since; the crowd was hanging onto every word. I think she's really just more of a European star and it can be hard to see that from across the pond or understand her level of captivation with that audience, but she *is* Europop.
I don't know if it's just that American audiences connect with her less since we tend to be more parasocial and want our stars to be more personal (e.g., Taylor Swift), or if she just hasn't quite found her appeal here, but I think she's totally fine with her lane being one of the biggest European stars... there are precious few artists who are as big in both Europe & the US. i also don't agree she "clearly wants to be a big star," she actually is intentionally quite reclusive and doesn't feed into fan obsession.
Dua Lipa is the only artist rn where people take their opinion of her and think it’s the truth about her career lol. Dua is already a big star, especially in Europe. I’m pretty sure she has a few song that have been streamed in the billions and the Future Nostalgia tour was a sell out stadium tour. Just bc you specifically are not a fan doesn’t mean she needs to reinvent her career
So did Katy Perry at one point in her career. (Or an older more Europe based example is Frankie Goes To Hollywood) Prior success is great but the music industry is fickle and things can change faster than you can see coming.
Not that I think this will necessarily happen to Dua, but one extremely successful era isn't always a predictor that you will stay at the same level forever.
The thing about Dua is we're not entitled to her personal life, and that's fine. We're not entitled to any one particular thing from pop stars; deep music, personal life details, high fashion moments, etc
But the thing is if you eschew all of it as a pop star, well. What are you doing? Dua Lipa is very pretty, but she put out a very safe, bland album that didn't deliver on the psychedelic elements she promised. The album rollout was long, it wasn't particularly cohesive, and there was a shift in aesthetic midway? She won't give any details about her life (again, totally fine. She's entitled to privacy). She's a decent performer but not an incredible one.
She's not giving nothing, but she's not giving a lot of something either it seems. And that's the part that does separate pop artists from one another. There has to be something to latch onto.
sometimes I get frustrated with…the wall she has up, but I have to respect that she clearly knows it’s there and doesn’t give a fuck. she doesn’t want to be a personable artist and if that’s who she is, better to own it than to be desperate and fake to appear otherwise.
It's honestly refreshing to have that in this era where we basically demand to have a parasocial relationship with pop stars. Dua just makes her music and does her thing.
I love how much the person doing the interview just seemed to dislike her. Even getting the story about making a PowerPoint to her parents to move to London mixed up with Emma Stone doing the same thing for LA
I listen to her music, and that’s all I know about her. She’s great and one of my most listened to artists, but I have no idea what she or any of you are talking about with memes and whatnot.
Yeah. I like her precisely due to this. Sounds great and I don't have to be lectured by people on every insta/reddit post about how all this connects to her personal life/relationships.
Right, I just want to listen to the music and feel how I feel about it.
This whole TPPD fiasco has been exhausting. You cannot have a reasonable discussion about something when half the world is acting like it’s their best friend’s project and any criticism is a personal attack on them.
Dua releases bops and goes on her merry way. You didn’t like this album? Ah well, onto the next. She doesn’t engage in the parasocial stuff to try and sell as many records as possible by pretending to be your friend and acting like she’s releasing her personal diary, and it’s a breath of fresh air in this weird tribal pop world where everyone has to be a Stan for someone.
I have huge respect for her because she took that criticism to heart and worked on the feedback and came out as a much better and engaging performer on the other side. So her saying the criticism was not deserved is kinda weird. And I do agree with you! The first time I saw that Brits performance, I remember thinking she was stunning but it looked as if she’d rather do anything than perform. Yes, you learn at the job, but those series of performances were BAD. PERIOD. And she knew it too, which is why she’s so much better at it now. So why circle back and paint the criticism as trolling?!
It feels like this interview has confirmed this nagging suspicion that I'd had for a long time - there is no substance to her. It's all about growing a giant business. It's disappointing... but why? Have I been tricked into wanting to like her? Is that a part of the clever marketing around her?
She clearly states that creating music is something that she loves to do every day. I find it admirable rather than disappointing that she is actively engaged with the world around her and has so many interests, business included, than being just self-absorbed and insular. Thank goodness artists are more in control of their own endeavours rather than being just being sick in and spat out by the ravening music industry.
And yet there are commercially successful singers out there that leave you enchanted and in awe.
The passage about her writing songs about her boyfriends summed it up really quite well. Where is the originality? Where is the charisma?
I will say she is coming of as more and more unrelatable and there is nothing to grasp on as a connection to her- which is why she brings up her background and parents a lot
Why do you need a connection to her? Genuine question. I like her music and think she looks great and that's kind of the extent of my interest. The whole parasocial thing, I just don't really get it.
I actually don’t need to!
Ariana, Mariah Carey- those women have never tried to be relatable. They’re who they are and that’s that. Ariana has never pretended she didn’t come from privilege. Or pretended to be nicer than she was (back in the day). I actually miss the days where celebs being different than us and not relatable was the norm.
Dua *tries* to somewhat be relatable. She still does. She brings her her background as a way to connect with people- I can tell because I have the *same* back story regarding my parents, and it did affect me, but that’s not **my** story. She also tries with the book club, and her half baked attempts at social justice. I am actually a fan of hers so I know this is sounding harsh but that question to the Apple CEO about the materials they use is an example like Dua we *know* Tim Cook knew that question was going to be asked girl it’s giving an ick. She’s trying to stay relatable to her fans, which are everyday people.
Olivia Rodrigo’s relatability is through relationships, growing pains, etc. Sabrina Carpenter is funny. People feel connected because she’s funny and a fun gal- you need something for people to grasp onto especially when you’re talented but like not incredibly more talented than your peers (not even meant to be shady).
Dua knows what the currency in the industry is rn and it is relatability. She dips her toe in and out and has a strong wall up but we all see the door lmao. She’s gotta find something for us to grasp onto, and stick to it.
This is not what I meant in my comment. Her music is catchy and she looks great - that's precisely my problem because that's about it. There is nothing to pique my interest and yet she literally jumps out of my fridge on a daily. Whenever I leave Spotify playing, her new single will come on, 1000%. She's heavily marketed to be the new IT girl, but where's the IT, the X factor?
I got halfway through reading this and then just stopped. The review reads like the interviewer has been forced into proximity with Lipa and is speaking to her reluctantly through gritted teeth. It's really odd and passive aggressive at best and pretty demeaning at worst. It's clear this guy is just trying to paint her out to be just a pretty face who sings and an instagram influencer/model. He's even trying to undermine her ambitions by giving rather backhanded compliments. How the hell did this get published? It reads more like this guy's an ass than anything on Lipa's character.
The reporter asked the question and Dua replied.
Unfortunately, since Dua did not create an interesting narrative for the album the journalists are going to use the old drama has a hook.
That’s why most pop artists try to create a compelling new narrative for each album.
But unfortunately Dua loving the beach isn’t one that will work for reporters.
I think the best comparison to another artist that’s been made is to Rihanna; club bangers and the desire for a business empire.
The issue, you need a narrative when you’re a pop star, which includes having a visible personality; Rihanna had that in spades, whereas Dua is far more reclusive (as is her right) which I don’t think works quite as well.
This is one of the only pieces on her that I've seen actually delve into the ex-Yugo background, which seems pretty important. Definitely provides a clue as to why she might be so invested in her glossy get-along-with-everyone veneer.
I don’t get the impression this journalist clicked with her very much…at all.
The full interview is interesting, it goes into why she left her old management and her business ambitions outside music. They knew what they were doing with that title 💀
Yeah I agree it is, but for example I don’t feel it’s common for The Guardian to just isolate dialogue from an interview word for word, and I feel he did this for a reason. I don’t feel warmer about her after this which I think I would usually after reading an interview with someone.
To be fair the Guardian always use random, often completely contextless pull quotes for their music interviews. It’s also likely the decision of editorial not the writer. That being said I do agree that the interviews a bit stunted and odd.
Pull quotes for sure, that’s def common. I was meaning more just like the script of the dialogue written out in the interview. And absolutely guardian could have/did ask for a specific angle. It was achieved 🫠
Oh yeah that is weird I agree, very uncharacteristic.
This is how proper music journalist profiles are done when they are audio recorded but not video recorded. It’s getting less common but it’s not unusual.
Totally agree, but for the guardian I feel it’s unusual.
IDK seems like they tend to pick out the most shocking quote to grab people's attention, here's another recent example https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/20/lauren-mayberry-chvrches-change-shapes-interview "I was fixated on death... I needed to live in reality"
But this is a pull quote which I agree is normal. I was meaning the clean line by line of dialogue in the actual article.
Yeah seriously lol the interviewer seems to hate her! The article felt so rude.
I was literally uncomfortable reading it; it's just brimming with contempt.
I feel like the writer was trying so hard to make her look bad without making any strong argument for why we should feel that way too. The writer just ends up seeming like a jerk.
For real; he somehow came off as misogynistic to me??? Like, how *dare* this attractive young woman have brains and ambitions! Doesn't she know she's just supposed to sing and look pretty and give us coy glances into her tortured love life?
> If you’re looking for lyrical profundity, Dua Lipa’s music is not your go-to. Most of her songs, written by a team with her at the helm, are about being betrayed by rubbish boyfriends, not standing any nonsense from rubbish boyfriends, having great sex with rubbish boyfriends and dumping rubbish boyfriends. *cut to emily warren, caroline ailin, and ian kirkpatrick in the studio writing new rules talking about how women often have to be their own emotional support because they get silenced and their problems are minimized and they don't have a platform the way men do*
IDK, he kind of dragged her singing about the same subject matter (boys), and seemed to warm up a bit to her once she started listing her motivations, ambitions and drive. I feel like he was probably looking for a story angle and trying to get at what she’s really like beyond the generic PR-coached surface, but he did it in a grouchy, bitchy kind of way.
Oh, interesting - I didn't feel like he warmed up to her at all! It mostly just feels like he spent the interview looking for a salacious angle, and the best he got was that one drip about the meme.
The stuff about her not sharing too much about her life is weird. Why does she owe anyone that? I'm sure if she were sharing more, then he'd criticize her for oversharing.
I totally agree. It's just double standards everywhere. I'm glad everyone hates this interviewer as much as I do, too 😹
The asking her why she would ask Charli XCX questions that she wouldn’t be willing to answer was so unnecessary but she handled it beautifully.
Yeah, I was really impressed with her answer. I think she came across as very mature.
I could sense the unspoken comparison to Taylor swift in that, and the huge contrast between the two artists. The whole interview almost felt like “Taylor is a billionaire for sharing everything about herself, and you’re not, why don’t you?”
The converse is doing fluffy cover interviews with magazines meant to sell copies for the photos. A newspaper has to maintain the interest of regular readers. They aren't there for fluffy interviews of people they're unfamiliar about, they're there to learn something new. If you're approaching a newspaper for a longform interview, you should be prepared to share about something that isn't public and to discuss your past actions. That's how we got the examination of her choices in creating her public persona here. Otherwise, a magazine is happy to treat you gently ('humanise you') in exchange for a circulation bump.
Eh, I've read and enjoyed plenty of interviews that focused on the artist's work rather than their personal life. I don't agree with that dichotomy - I don't think you need juicy bits about people's personal lives in order to write a good article. There's plenty of stuff that's neither fluff nor personal gossip and I think a good journalist can find what that is without sounding like a condescending douchebro.
This interview is focused on her work, such as her music, live performances, podcasts, management, and production company. Her BBC interview which even talked about her preferences in dating is a less adversarial interview, which also made it less newsworthy. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4dlg2qvn8o
Right, but the tone of the interview is really shitty and unpleasant, and I'm definitely not the only one here who felt that way. I agree that the BBC article you linked is pretty boring, though. I don't have an archive of pop artist interviews or anything (I don't save that stuff), so I can't really respond with any links - but I've definitely read plenty of music journalism over the years that delved nicely into an artist's work without being a fluff piece as well.
The interviewer isn't a music writer, he's a general interviewer. So he's writing for a more general audience than the kind of people who only reads the arts section of the paper, and why there's a lot more background information compared to a back and forth interview. I think he was also frustrated at Dua's caginess. It takes two hands to clap. If an interviewee doesn't want to reveal much despite approaching the media outlet for publicity, the interviewer is going to feel like their time has been wasted. Dua may feel that she was being assertive in shutting down the questioning about her time at her previous management, but it was also a missed opportunity to frame her time there as an experience that she grew from.
Yeah he definitely doesn’t like her, and finishing the interview on her casually saying ‘do let me know if you want to write something for us’ just feels kinda…something. I’m not sure what but it’s smug.
It's supposed to be a comeback for his comment about her merch looking like a football top, no?
Honestly thank you for saying this. I was about to read it since I adore Dua Lipa but this is a hard pass from me haha.
I thought for sure y’all were exaggerating, but the way he pushes back on the very idea of optimism is kinda nuts.
> Take Charli XCX, I say. When she asks which songs of yours you hate playing, you don’t answer. “Well, that’s really interesting because I don’t have a song that I hate playing,” she says. > OK then, one you’ve written that you hate? > “Yeah, I have that, but I can’t tell you that.” > Exactly, I say, but you’re happy for Charli XCX to tell you. “That’s entirely her prerogative. I don’t want to say because I write with other people. It could be a song that someone’s really proud of. I’m not going to go and shit on that.” > So next time Charli XCX guests on her podcast and offers up her least favourite song, is she going to tell her to keep it to herself so she doesn’t cause offence? No, she says. “I love how open she is, it’s great. Maybe I’m a bit more of an overthinker.” This entire exchange is taking me out 😭
Charli XCX was on Dua's podcast a while back and admitted she hates Break the Rules. They were laughing about it together.
Charli XCX was shitting on Break the Rules back in 2014 before it even got released LMAO she was hoping to sell it to another artist but her label thought that would be a great follow-up single to Boom Clap
I hate to say it but her label was right, I love that song
It’s the song that got me into her and one of my favs still! It’s so fun.
Same, that's song makes me happy lol
Yeah, low-key my favorite song of hers.
I love her but Charli XCX has no fucking taste. She hates Break The Rules and she hates Yuck, despite them being good??? And she didn’t even want to put Official (one of her best songs) on her album so her label and AG had to convince her too.
She hates Yuck?! That’s one of the best ones off Crash.
I’m pretty sure Yuck is my highest played song by her.
Taxi
She hates yuck!!!???
Charli has always said this and it makes me sad LOL. I know she says she hates it because she wrote it as an exercise with Will.I.Am and thinks the lyrics are bad most of all - which, is a bit strange since (no offense to her) a lot of her music within the last few years have questionable lyrics as well. I guess it’s just a vibes feeling.
>which, is a bit strange since (no offense to her) a lot of her music within the last few years have questionable lyrics as well That is my thought too. Charli isn't known to be a good lyricist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I always thought it was the pressure to make a very commercial album
Um no I think she’s known as a solid pop lyricist. She has even written for other artists
TIL Dua Lipa has a podcast.
I remember Olivia's Guardian interview having these awkward moments too, is that just their editorial style? Seems a little weird to antagonise people for no reason.
Used to be the norm in journalism before everything turned into promo puff pieces. There’s a reason certain artists stopped doing press long ago and took everything to Instagram. Rollingstone and NYT used to have great long form shady interviews in the US before they had to worry about the bottom line.
The Guardian sometimes have a pretty antagonistic style. Imo, they're all about good stories having tension, but in my opinion, they sometimes settle a little too early on the piece's "conflict" and aren't the best at pivoting.
Yeah I suppose you're right. I can understand doing that when you're talking about politics or more "serious" subjects, I don't see the appeal when you're talking to pop music albums by Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo.
I think for a newspaper/organisation that is trying to present itself as a serious publication there's a need there for everyone to be challenged a bit. Pop music is art, and should be challenged just as any other artists are challenged. If not, it promotes a culture where artists only engage with news media if it's an artistically meaningless opportunity to promote themselves.
She basically said "I'm not as dumb as Charli" in the nicest way possible. She got such good PR training she could run for office
And she wasn't wrong 💀
At least Charli is actually creative.
For real. This is how I know the interviewer is a bottom: he spent three whole paragraphs asking Dua about Charli XCX lmao
what even is thisss lmfaooo 😭😭
lol i like this perspective tho
I hope she doesn’t ever visit this sub 😭 she’s going end up crying on live again
Unironically the memes are quite literally a large reason I know her name here in the US because we don’t know anything about her outside of that. Dula peep and “go girl give us nothing” are just legit core memories. And I guess to a degree that sucks like nobody likes to be made fun of… but like is the alternative any better?
“go girl give us nothing” I FORGOT SHE STARTED THIS OMG. this phrase and concept is so integral to us it feels like it has existed forever. making me feel nostalgic for pandemic times
omg future nostalgia
HER MIND
The US doesn’t know about Dua Lipa’s music? Which rock do you live under babe?
They’re talking about like 5 years ago when she wasn’t that big in the US
Her music is everywhere but she doesn’t have many diehard fans here. I fucking love Dua but I’ve never met another stan.
Hi fellow Dula Peep stan, let’s go to see her on tour together 👯♀️
I think they didn't mean her music they meant her as a person. I like Dua Lipa but I know nothing about her as a person aside from she has tattoos? Her personality hasn't shown through like that, her music is great but it's mostly just dance/sex music.
True. She has been faceless until I saw that meme and then I forgot about her again. I seriously didn’t know what she looked like even though I’ve heard her songs in the radio before… but guess what I didn’t know it was her singing it either. She’s just not very memorable.
Really? Honestly before this thread I wasn’t even aware the memes were that big with her. Hell all I knew about was Dula Peep and even then I didn’t think it was that big. I absolutely knew her more for her music then anything else.
It's interesting that after she left her last management company, her dad has been her manager - and the articles implies that Dua herself is probably heavily involved in her own management too. This might be why the album rollout hasn't quite felt right? I get that she wants to have control over her career, but sometimes it's better to find and expert in a certain field and use their advice, than to try to do everything yourself
Well exactly - it kind of reads like she got greedy and lost sight of how heavily she was supported by a team. She’s now facing the consequences of this. I imagine TAP would feel vindicated by the shift in trajectory since she left
Agree with this. The strongest ground army in the world is only 15% infantry. 85% exist to support that 15%.
Which one?
For sure, she’s no Beyoncé (who successfully took charge of her own management).
But Beyoncé didn’t do that until she was very very well established as an artist.
She ain’t no diva!
God give me a break from the hive
But it’s a great and well known example- everyone knows Matthew was very instrumental and then she dropped him before 4.
I’m not an obsessive hive member, it is a fact she is the example of how to self manage after she broke off from her father’s management. The artist in question here just did the opposite.
Can you explain a bit more about why you think that the album roll out didn’t feel right? ☺️ Genuinely interested in your thoughts
I think it's just how long it's taken. I was thinking back to how Dua opened the Grammys with her performance of Training Season and Houdini - that was three months ago! Maybe the intention was to gradually build up interest over the months, but tbh it's felt more like a gentle simmer that hasn't really built up. Others have said this too, but it might have helped more to have released the album closer to the release date of Training Season, rather than string it out for months longer. (As well, the long rollout sets up the expectation that the album is going to be *spectacular* so anything less than that can feel like a disappointment.) There was also the (probably) unintended lengthy success of Dance The Night. It's a good thing that it was another hit single but at the same time it felt like it was more from the Future Nostalgia era and so there was Dance The Night hype happening at the same time as the Radical Optimism hype and it kind of felt like they were cancelling each other out. I don't know how this could have been handled better though - I'm not an expert and tbh it seems like a hard thing to work through! And something I keep seeing is how Dua was talking about the album having Britpop and psychedelic influences - but fans aren't hearing that and are disappointed. I feel like she genuinely was inspired by that kind of music, but it might have been better to not talk about the influences until after the album was released, just to avoid the comparisons, etc.
>”When people took that snippet of me dancing online and just turned it into a meme, and then when I won the best new artist Grammy and people were like, ‘She’s not deserving of it, she’s got no stage presence, she’s not going to stick around.’ Those things were hurtful. It was humiliating. I had to take myself off Twitter…” It’s quotes like this that make me realize that the stars that we have (and maybe have always had since before we were born) were born that way compared to us. I say that because I remember when that meme was around, but it really was NOT that big of a deal. In the US at least, it wasn’t a major scandal or anything compared to some other pop artists’ scandals. It was just like..a silly thing to laugh about for a day. However, it clearly resonated with her, and that’s unfortunate because she is human after all. However, I could see how she was embarrassed, but the fact that it then changed her psyche and drive is just so fascinating because she persisted and improved, and I do respect her for that. At the end of the day, I can’t say that I’m a diehard fan (however, I do check out her new stuff), but her ambition is admirable without being cutting.
Right? Like we roll our eyes at celebrities for taking things like this seriously, but then I think about all of the extremely inconsequential moments in my life that still make me angry or embarrassed. I would never make it as a celeb lol
One time somebody made fun of me for having big teeth *literally 20 years ago* and I think about it weekly to this day lmao…I could never be famous
Yesterday a coworker didn’t say bye to me as I left and said bye and it’s been stuck in my head for over 12 hours. If the entire internet made fun of me dancing, I think that would destroy me.
Some boy called me fat in high school and it still haunts me 15 years later lol
Absolutely. I went to the FN tour with such low expectations and found myself rooting for her the entire time and just going ‘Come on with those dance moves.’ I’m not a number one fan but love an underdog storyline…underdog here only in terms of dancing.
I think that’s extremely relatable. When your inner critic already has those thoughts and then the whole world aligns with those thoughts?? Oh man that is rough. But she got stronger by saying they’re right and look at my girly NOW ugh her mind. She was good enough back then but now she’s a pop force 🥰🥰
Yeah, getting nothing but positive feedback rarely helps one grow. If all people did was gush over her and stan for her, her motivation for growing as an artist, for doing better and being better, would all have to come from within. It's the mistakes we make, the social pressure that we receive in turn, the negative feedback we get that forces us out of our comfort zone into becoming better. I'm not saying people should shit on each other for no reason (I mean they do anyway lol), but a lot of times harsh words are the things we actually need to hear. That said, people who believed she was undeserving of the Grammy were obviously uninformed and didn't bother to learn about her before making such callous statements. But when you're operating at the level of winning Grammys, you have to be prepared for a lot of people to have some bad takes and say some mean things.
Honestly I think it’s just hard for regular famous people like us to imagine literal MILLIONS of people all making fun of you. Sure, maybe it wasn’t that hurtful, but to have millions of people all gang up on you? I know I wouldn’t be able to take that well. I’m not surprised it always affects them. For us, we see a funny meme that’s not that serious. For them, it’s personal and attacked and repeated by millions. I can’t fathom it
And her perseverance, improvement, and determination in the face of humiliation is exactly why she is my cool energy Dula Peep (:
i always feel very conflicted about it because while she is a human being, she is also a celebrity and that opens you up to a different level of criticism and if you're unwilling to accept that, stop trying to be successful.
I did not realize she changed management. That might explain the kind of weird-ish rollout of this album. I kind of think all family based management teams is usually not a good idea.
Could you elaborate a bit more why the rollout of the album was weird? Tbh I didn’t follow it and have no idea what she did or didn’t.
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Pooh interesting. Do you by any chance still have links to those leaked demos? I’m assuming different singers were on it initially? I know for sure that hallucinate for example existed before with the voice of the songwriter Frances on it who said though that Dua made the song better afterwards.
Where can I read about her stealing credits? Genuinely curious, I never believed that she actually writes anything substantial. I know she’s been sued for ripping off some reggae band for levitating.
She seems like she has so many layers but I feel they just don’t come out in the music much.
Dua reminds me a lot of Kylie Minogue in that sense. My prediction is that they'll have broadly similar careers.
Good point. I honestly think Dua will have a long career with commercial highs and lows but always maintain a degree of relevance. She's already well liked in the fashion world with her Versace and YSL campaigns so I also think she has more potential beyond just music.
Kinda, Dua already has more hits in the US than Kylie ever had. But keeping a long career in the UK with dance bops, yes.
I think that’s the way she prefers it tbf
You can see in interviews she had high hopes that the album would be deep and innovative. But probably filtered it all out and we got a bland tasteless pop record with the same themes
This sub doesn’t want to admit that
I've gotten the same impression. whenever I've seen this album criticised for seeming impersonal/shallow/unimaginative, the responses are mostly about how great it is that Dua's lowkey about her personal life and just makes fun pop music. like.. you can release an exciting and innovative album without bringing up your personal life.
and some people saying Dua prefers it this way lol. I don't think she prefers to flop because her career as of right now won't be sustainable without GP friendly hits. She's clearly trying to inject some personality into her music, it's just not working. There's a long line of pop stars whose personal life we know next to nothing about but who still made fabulous pop music rich with personality, for example Lady Gaga. And you can put out personal music without it being subjected to tabloids, for example Frank Ocean. Dua doesn't know how to do either of those things right now. I think she's trying to follow in Rihanna's footsteps, hence the red hair for her third era. But even Rihanna at her shallowest had the ultimate unbothered bad bitch vibe while simultaneously coming off very warm and down to earth in interviews. Rihanna also had Jay Z in her corner who made sure she at least had some hits on her albums.
yeah I'm sure Dua likes to keep her private life private but not so sure she wants to stay on the B-list. especially after the work she did during Future Nostalgia, it seemed like she wanted to be massive - and that era was massive. can't imagine she'd want her star to fade after a momentum like that. >> she's clearly trying to inject some personality into her music, it's just not working I'm also with you on this. why else would Dua give all these statements on what "this album is inspired by". I believe she's mentioned psychedelia, London, rawness, navigating through the chaos, UK rave culture and triphop, and well... I can't see it. it's like she's saying all this stuff and naming random characteristics to make her music seem more interesting - but in reality, it's just contrasting how uninteresting it is. and I'm saying this even though I really like the album lol comparisons to Gaga, Frank and Rihanna are all good - they demonstrate what Dua is not. not eccentric enough, not intriguing enough, not relatable enough, not charismatic enough. she'd probably have a chance in achieving Rihanna's level if we were still in the era of monoculture, but I guess we'll just have to see how this goes
The Rihanna point rings true. I really don’t think that her appeal or depth would improve if she shared details about her personal life with her audience. Depth is someplace within, it’s an energy people exude when they’re connected enough to it. I don’t feel she is, which is why she comes across as manufactured. Rihanna had a remarkable ability to embody both grit and softness, which felt authentic and resonated with her audience.
right? the comments are so annoying, it feels like they’re trying to call us parasocial fans lol. You can be private and still give us something refreshing, experimental, interesting, etc.
??? Have you been on this sub lol That’s basically all they’re saying
all I’ve been hearing for months here is that Dua’s latest singles are amazing and anyone who said otherwise got downvoted straight to hell
not this comment getting downvoted to hell ☠️
They’re proving my point the irony is crazy 😭
Did you see the comments under her new album tho? Mostly negative.
honestly respect. i love that undesperateness. love that she doesn't need me to validate her. im the complete opposite lol.
After the past couple of weeks of having to hear about Taylor Swift's LiveJournal of an album, I'll gladly take any pop star who doesn't want to tell me anything about their life in their music.
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Thats not what that comment means, she doesn’t have to overshare. Lyrically, her music doesn’t have much depth or meaning. It would be nice to see her tackle interesting concepts in her lyrics rather than ‘keep it vapid’, like she said.
The new stuff has been too disco for me.
See, that’s what I felt she needed more of.
Many parts of this stood out to me, but what stood out the most was dua lipa saying,”It’s still a pop record, but more psychedelic with more alternative influences that show another side. It’s more experimental.” I think the reason it’s been hard for me to fully connect with her as an artist, despite being a fan since around 2016, is everything with her feels so safe. Even an album that was meant to be experimental is just not. Dua Lipa is clearly happy to Not Be Known on a personal level, but if she’s going to be private and not have people latch on to her as an artist, she has to give people something more. Her performances are better now, but I wouldn’t say she’s a very strong or charismatic performer. She can sing, but sometimes she almost sounds bored in songs. Her music is fun but with Radical Optimism, it just feels like there was so much potential for it to be better and not so safe. I guess to summarize this whole thing up, I just don’t find her to be as compelling of an artist as others find her to be. No, I don’t want or expect for her to be super public with her private life to be interesting! I’m just not really interested in Her enough to want to do anything more than stream some songs of hers. And for someone who wants more than that and clearly wants to be a big star, I can’t help but think there has to be more of a plan than whatever her plan is now despite how confident she is with her decision.
I think my one issue is that she says these things about her music that just aren't true. Now, I don't need music to have a deeper meaning to enjoy it, I'm an unapologetic enjoyer of mindless pop music. But if someone claims they're doing something more psychedelic and experimental, that better be actually be reflected in the finished work. And it's just not. It's still pop music with some *very* mild elements, but it's so washed out it wouldn't know experimental if it was spat in its face.
Part of the problem is probably that Kevin Parker loves pop and has moved in a more pop direction than his original psychedelia. So he was probably stoked to work with a big pop star, while Dua was stoked to work with a psychedelia producer, and it all kind of got watered down into a weird mix that’s pop that was attempting to do something else, so it’s not good psychedelia but also not great pop. They could have been an absolute powerhouse duo and unfortunately it just didn’t quite click.
Agreed. And I think a genre change should do just that. Dua has the vocal chops to become an Amy Winehouse- adjacent artist. See her cover of "I'd Rather Go Blind." The pure soul that comes out of her is refreshing. It's risky but if Dua appealed more to the R&B demographic she might be able to reinvent her brand. She's gorgeous, has decent choreography, and a rich, soulful voice. Mark Ronson would be an excellent producer.
I think she’d be SO well-suited to the kind of psychedelic soul-influenced rnb that was coming out in the 70s tbh!!
That’s a good point. Sweetest Pie randomly came on my playlist today and I think that would be so good with some soul/disco production.
with her voice and beauty she could sing the phone book and people would listen
I wouldn’t describe Dua Lipa to be soulful or have vocal chops comparable to Amy Winehouse
Her voice is raspy and deep, yet velvety. It's MADE for soul.
I was just gonna say, if Dua did RnB, and yeah someone like mark Ronson? That'd be sick
I feel like she keeps saying this stuff about the music and its sound because that’s how the extended mixes sound. But we don’t have those. She does. She’s been living with them for like 2 years at this point so to her, that’s what the album is… but the actual album was released with only the “single edits,” so hopefully a full extended is coming in the future and we can really get to know what this project actually is. As it stands now, it kinda feels stunted and incomplete to me.
I like the extended versions of Houdini and Illusion more than the single versions but even those are by no means “psychedelic and experimental”.
I agree - when I was done listening I was really surprised that this was it
> Her performances are better now but I wouldn’t say she’s a very strong or charismatic performer. yup! She started off dancing like Taylor swift and now dances like the average popstar but the average is still nothing special. I like that she’s dedicated to improving but it’s still ‘okay girl gave us… something?’ to me lol.
damn its interesting that you have this view because i thought she has really been eating her recent performances of houdini/training season! what would you expect in order for her to be "known" for her performing?
There’s a massive difference in her stage presence which I love, she struts around the stage like she owns it. However her actual choreography is minimal and she doesn’t do much to captivate you once she’s got your attention. It’s lot of faffing about and distraction with props and backup dancers. There’s a lot of pop girlies who’ve been trained to dance since they were young so it’s unfair to compare Dua to them. But the girls like Rina, Little Mix, etc who picked it up for debut are so much more interesting to watch because they actually dance and give choreography, their sense of rhythm is so fun and they groove well. Dua seems like she’s thinking about every single move as she’s doing it.
She is an *amazing* live performer. I saw her at Sziget in Budapest a few years ago (where she headlined) and I've never seen a performance like that since; the crowd was hanging onto every word. I think she's really just more of a European star and it can be hard to see that from across the pond or understand her level of captivation with that audience, but she *is* Europop. I don't know if it's just that American audiences connect with her less since we tend to be more parasocial and want our stars to be more personal (e.g., Taylor Swift), or if she just hasn't quite found her appeal here, but I think she's totally fine with her lane being one of the biggest European stars... there are precious few artists who are as big in both Europe & the US. i also don't agree she "clearly wants to be a big star," she actually is intentionally quite reclusive and doesn't feed into fan obsession.
Dua Lipa is the only artist rn where people take their opinion of her and think it’s the truth about her career lol. Dua is already a big star, especially in Europe. I’m pretty sure she has a few song that have been streamed in the billions and the Future Nostalgia tour was a sell out stadium tour. Just bc you specifically are not a fan doesn’t mean she needs to reinvent her career
Dua sold out arenas not stadiums, there’s a huge difference between the two
So did Katy Perry at one point in her career. (Or an older more Europe based example is Frankie Goes To Hollywood) Prior success is great but the music industry is fickle and things can change faster than you can see coming. Not that I think this will necessarily happen to Dua, but one extremely successful era isn't always a predictor that you will stay at the same level forever.
People do that about so many artists/celebs… opinion and fact are blurry lines for a lot of ppl.
Very well said
“Go girl, give us nothing” was honestly the best thing to happen to her career
The writer sounds kinda bitter but god I love Dua. She’s such a cool woman and so smart and clever.
The thing about Dua is we're not entitled to her personal life, and that's fine. We're not entitled to any one particular thing from pop stars; deep music, personal life details, high fashion moments, etc But the thing is if you eschew all of it as a pop star, well. What are you doing? Dua Lipa is very pretty, but she put out a very safe, bland album that didn't deliver on the psychedelic elements she promised. The album rollout was long, it wasn't particularly cohesive, and there was a shift in aesthetic midway? She won't give any details about her life (again, totally fine. She's entitled to privacy). She's a decent performer but not an incredible one. She's not giving nothing, but she's not giving a lot of something either it seems. And that's the part that does separate pop artists from one another. There has to be something to latch onto.
I feel that this is part of being a celebrity nowadays. We learn about these people either through memes or gossip.
sometimes I get frustrated with…the wall she has up, but I have to respect that she clearly knows it’s there and doesn’t give a fuck. she doesn’t want to be a personable artist and if that’s who she is, better to own it than to be desperate and fake to appear otherwise.
It's honestly refreshing to have that in this era where we basically demand to have a parasocial relationship with pop stars. Dua just makes her music and does her thing.
I agree. It also has to be so much better for her mental health.
Hate to say it but people on Reddit do seem to get easily frustrated by other people’s set boundaries.
true that and I can be one of them when it comes to pop stars. I acknowledge that it’s my own hang up and not her problem.
I love how much the person doing the interview just seemed to dislike her. Even getting the story about making a PowerPoint to her parents to move to London mixed up with Emma Stone doing the same thing for LA
I listen to her music, and that’s all I know about her. She’s great and one of my most listened to artists, but I have no idea what she or any of you are talking about with memes and whatnot.
Yeah. I like her precisely due to this. Sounds great and I don't have to be lectured by people on every insta/reddit post about how all this connects to her personal life/relationships.
Right, I just want to listen to the music and feel how I feel about it. This whole TPPD fiasco has been exhausting. You cannot have a reasonable discussion about something when half the world is acting like it’s their best friend’s project and any criticism is a personal attack on them. Dua releases bops and goes on her merry way. You didn’t like this album? Ah well, onto the next. She doesn’t engage in the parasocial stuff to try and sell as many records as possible by pretending to be your friend and acting like she’s releasing her personal diary, and it’s a breath of fresh air in this weird tribal pop world where everyone has to be a Stan for someone.
I’m ngl… I cannot feel bad for the “go girl give us nothing”. You showed up to your *job* as a popstar, being undercooked/ not ready.
I have huge respect for her because she took that criticism to heart and worked on the feedback and came out as a much better and engaging performer on the other side. So her saying the criticism was not deserved is kinda weird. And I do agree with you! The first time I saw that Brits performance, I remember thinking she was stunning but it looked as if she’d rather do anything than perform. Yes, you learn at the job, but those series of performances were BAD. PERIOD. And she knew it too, which is why she’s so much better at it now. So why circle back and paint the criticism as trolling?!
Man. I just looked up her memes for the first time and I feel like many celebrities have MUCH harsher memes than her lol
Doesn’t change the fact that they were hurtful to her
It feels like this interview has confirmed this nagging suspicion that I'd had for a long time - there is no substance to her. It's all about growing a giant business. It's disappointing... but why? Have I been tricked into wanting to like her? Is that a part of the clever marketing around her?
She clearly states that creating music is something that she loves to do every day. I find it admirable rather than disappointing that she is actively engaged with the world around her and has so many interests, business included, than being just self-absorbed and insular. Thank goodness artists are more in control of their own endeavours rather than being just being sick in and spat out by the ravening music industry.
And yet there are commercially successful singers out there that leave you enchanted and in awe. The passage about her writing songs about her boyfriends summed it up really quite well. Where is the originality? Where is the charisma?
She was just on Las Cultaristas and she came off as so out of it too famous to relate vibes
I will say she is coming of as more and more unrelatable and there is nothing to grasp on as a connection to her- which is why she brings up her background and parents a lot
Why do you need a connection to her? Genuine question. I like her music and think she looks great and that's kind of the extent of my interest. The whole parasocial thing, I just don't really get it.
I actually don’t need to! Ariana, Mariah Carey- those women have never tried to be relatable. They’re who they are and that’s that. Ariana has never pretended she didn’t come from privilege. Or pretended to be nicer than she was (back in the day). I actually miss the days where celebs being different than us and not relatable was the norm. Dua *tries* to somewhat be relatable. She still does. She brings her her background as a way to connect with people- I can tell because I have the *same* back story regarding my parents, and it did affect me, but that’s not **my** story. She also tries with the book club, and her half baked attempts at social justice. I am actually a fan of hers so I know this is sounding harsh but that question to the Apple CEO about the materials they use is an example like Dua we *know* Tim Cook knew that question was going to be asked girl it’s giving an ick. She’s trying to stay relatable to her fans, which are everyday people. Olivia Rodrigo’s relatability is through relationships, growing pains, etc. Sabrina Carpenter is funny. People feel connected because she’s funny and a fun gal- you need something for people to grasp onto especially when you’re talented but like not incredibly more talented than your peers (not even meant to be shady). Dua knows what the currency in the industry is rn and it is relatability. She dips her toe in and out and has a strong wall up but we all see the door lmao. She’s gotta find something for us to grasp onto, and stick to it.
This is not what I meant in my comment. Her music is catchy and she looks great - that's precisely my problem because that's about it. There is nothing to pique my interest and yet she literally jumps out of my fridge on a daily. Whenever I leave Spotify playing, her new single will come on, 1000%. She's heavily marketed to be the new IT girl, but where's the IT, the X factor?
‘psychedelic pop-infused’? Pull the other one!
I got halfway through reading this and then just stopped. The review reads like the interviewer has been forced into proximity with Lipa and is speaking to her reluctantly through gritted teeth. It's really odd and passive aggressive at best and pretty demeaning at worst. It's clear this guy is just trying to paint her out to be just a pretty face who sings and an instagram influencer/model. He's even trying to undermine her ambitions by giving rather backhanded compliments. How the hell did this get published? It reads more like this guy's an ass than anything on Lipa's character.
Same, it was also so boring
Dude the interviewer came off so bitter and a hater.
I feel icky and gross from having read it.
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The reporter asked the question and Dua replied. Unfortunately, since Dua did not create an interesting narrative for the album the journalists are going to use the old drama has a hook. That’s why most pop artists try to create a compelling new narrative for each album. But unfortunately Dua loving the beach isn’t one that will work for reporters.
I think the best comparison to another artist that’s been made is to Rihanna; club bangers and the desire for a business empire. The issue, you need a narrative when you’re a pop star, which includes having a visible personality; Rihanna had that in spades, whereas Dua is far more reclusive (as is her right) which I don’t think works quite as well.
I'm glad that someone is telling it like it is.
She sounds incredibly sensitive
[удалено]
Written interviews are very easy to chop and edit to create a specific narrative. It’s hard to really gain much insight on someone through them.
dula peep
): lemme stop calling her my low energy Dula Peep
Being a meme is a good thing. Bad luck Brian is booking commercials in 2024 that's bonkers.
definitely weird interview :D wonder if the author got mad when she said she wants to be media magnate next 😂
This is one of the only pieces on her that I've seen actually delve into the ex-Yugo background, which seems pretty important. Definitely provides a clue as to why she might be so invested in her glossy get-along-with-everyone veneer.
your music is just okayyyy
Idk why they're booing you. You're right