Dua Lipa: meet pop's hottest property

Her heartbreak bangers have soundtracked the year and propelled Dua Lipa into pop's big league. Richard Godwin meets a singer playing the game by her own rules… and winning
Richard Godwin2 November 2017

Dua Lipa is perched on a wall outside a photo studio in south Tottenham, taking in the autumn sun, considering her rise to the pinnacle of British pop.

And she has plenty to ruminate on. In 2017, the 22-year-old Anglo-Kosovar singer has released her first album, taken her Instagram following to 3.8 million, secured autumn tours with Bruno Mars and Coldplay, and just announced her own arena tour for 2018. Her single, ‘New Rules’, about the perils of ex sex — ‘If you’re under him / You ain’t getting over him’ — became her first No 1 in the summer on the back of a sisterhood-themed video that has scored close to half a billion views on YouTube. And today is just one of those precious days where all feels right with the world. It’s warm enough that some kids are having a water fight in the street. But perhaps I’m just falling under her particular spell.

‘You know what?’ she says. ‘I’d take sunny London over anything, anywhere, any day. It’s my favourite place in the world. Seriously… Even when I’ve spent time in LA and it was gorgeous, I’d find myself missing the rain.’

Lipa has had one of those self-willed careers that makes you think that if you had her determination — and possibly her eyebrows — you too could do whatever you set out to do.

Right, MARTINE ROSE shirt, £540, at matchesfashion.com. CHRISTIAN DIOR bralet, £620; choker, as before (dior.com). JOSEPH trousers, £445 (joseph-fashion.com).

It helps that she sings in a distinct, husky, low register and knows her way around a melancholic tune. She calls her music ‘dance-crying’ and feels it’s the undercurrents of sadness that distinguish her from the general popscape. ‘I find a lot of inspiration from heartbreak, I kind of thrive on it’, she says. She’s also strikingly on point, sitting here in her white Air Maxes, rainbow sweatpants and Palm Angels hoodie, and her sultry looks, combined with her alleged dating history, have made her a tabloid favourite.

She has been linked to everyone from Calvin Harris to Chris Martin to Harry Styles — all fake news, she insists.

Left, SAINT LAURENT dress, £2,995; coat, £2,305 (ysl.com)

In reality, she is dating Paul Klein, frontman of the American synth band LANY. And no, ‘New Rules’ isn’t about any ex in particular. ‘Everyone makes mistakes once in a while and lots of people can relate to that,’ she says. ‘Sometimes, you keep going back to something that no longer helps you grow or makes you feel good. You know you’re comfortable with them. But you can’t live in comfort all the time. Life really starts outside your comfort zone.’

This could quite easily be Dua Lipa’s motto (Dua — pronounced doo-ah — is Albanian for ‘I want’ or ‘I fancy’, btw). She was born in north London to Kosovar parents. She had a happy childhood in Hampstead (she’s posher sounding than I had expected) and was all set for Camden School for Girls when her father Dukagjin, aka Dugi, decided to move the family back to Kosovo when she was 11.

With Sean Paul at MTV Live Stage
Getty Images for MTV

So, she spent her early adolescence in the tiny landlocked Balkan country, which had only recently gained independence from Serbia. ‘The whole population is less than two million people, so word gets around. Especially in Pristina, the capital, everyone knows everyone.’ Dugi now runs his own marketing and communications agency, but back in the day he had sung in a popular (and surprisingly good) rock band called Oda, so everyone knew her as Dugi’s daughter; now they know him as Dua’s father.

It was a happy and supportive place to grow up, and she spent a lot of time dancing along to Pink and Nelly Furtado, and having rap battles in the park. But it didn’t exactly seem like a place to launch a pop career, which was increasingly what she wanted to do. ‘I used to go to a Saturday stage school in London but it was only when I was at school in Kosovo that I realised how much I loved performing. And there I just didn’t feel like anyone was ever going to find me. So I decided to move back to London on my own.’

She was 15 when she made this decision. The official plan was: she’d go to London, sit her GCSEs and A-levels and go on to university. But she says she knew early on that she didn’t really want to go to university. ‘There was another Kosovan girl who was coming to do a master’s at LSE, and my parents knew her parents, so we managed to persuade them that I’d be able to live with her and everything would be fine. And everything was fine.’

JACQUEMUS jacket, £662, at matchesfashion.com. MM6 top, POA (020 7629 2682). MARTINE ROSE trousers, £608, at matchesfashion.com. CHRISTIAN DIOR choker, £240 (dior.com)

She learned how to cook more than just scrambled eggs. She became ‘super-close’ with a small circle of girlfriends she made at Parliament Hill School in Gospel Oak. ‘Whenever I felt lonely or missed home, they’d come, stay the night, make sure I was okay.’ On Saturdays, she went to Sylvia Young Theatre School and had the ‘best time ever’.

How did she cope at that age without her parents? ‘We’d FaceTime a lot. It would be like: wake up in the morning, tell mum I’d woken up, have breakfast, tell mum I’d had breakfast, go to school… and so on. So it was very controlled. But when it came to the point where I realised no one was going to look after me or tell me to clear up my room or cook my food, that was a struggle. That was definitely me coming out of my comfort zone. It played a massive role in making me who I am. With my music, I realised I just had to be confident.’

She took a pragmatic approach to her music — posting songs on YouTube, buttonholing up-and-coming producers to collaborate with her. Eventually, a cover of ‘Cocoa Butter Kisses’ by Chance the Rapper got her noticed. ‘Then I wrote a song called ‘Hotter than Hell’ with some friends of mine called Ritual, just keys and a kick-drum, and that really kickstarted everything.’

Ella Eyre and Dua Lipa in the front row at the Topshop Unique show
Richard Young/REX/Shutterstock

She was signed by Warner in 2015, which then paired her with the Canadian producer Stephen ‘Koz’ Kozmeniuk, who helped realise the sad-disco sound that she had in her head. It helps that she has that deep resonance in her voice — she says she’s always had a hard time reaching the high notes. ‘I talk all the way down in my boots and that’s sort of really bad for you. I used to lose my voice really often when I was first touring. When I sing in the studio I have to remember to sing with a smile as it really helps lift everything. I had to get a vocal coach to teach me how to speak in a lighter way.’

I can remember sitting in a photo studio not unlike this one a few years ago interviewing another Anglo-Kosovar dance-pop singer… Rita Ora: friend of hers? She smiles politely. ‘Our parents kind of know each other and I sort of know her sister, but I’ve only really come to know her now through music,’ she says.

Like Ora, she has become prey to creeps with long lenses. In the summer, her family holiday (she has a sister, 16, and brother, 11) was tarnished when a photographer decided to hide out to take pictures of her sunbathing. ‘It’s f***ing bulls***. I hate it. It was intrusive. I felt a bit… helpless. I was on holiday with my family at the time and I didn’t know how to react. I guess one thing that’s kind of upsetting is that… well, when I’m on holiday with my parents, I don’t really want to make an effort. I just want to put my hair in a bun and go out to the beach. And when I saw the pictures, I was like: “God, I feel like I should be making more of an effort.” And I really don’t want to fall into the hands of that. I’m not here to put on a show for paparazzi.’

Cover: Dua Lipa photographed by Luc Coiffait. MIU MIU Eco fur coat, £2,480 (miumiu.com). ASHLEY WILLIAMS choker, £95 (ashleywilliamslondon.com). Alamy; Jen Martin

There’s a difference, she points out, between wearing revealing outfits on stage and having her every appearance poured over. ‘I do wear bras onstage all the time obviously, but I like to be able to choose what people see and what people know about me. When that’s out of my hands, it’s not so nice.’

She also detects a misogynist tone to the fevered speculation about whether she’s dating this or that male collaborator, including Chris Martin, with whom she spent an afternoon jamming in Malibu recently. ‘They’re all bulls***! As soon as I broke up with my boyfriend [the model and chef, Isaac Carew], the second I was seen with someone it became a story. Even when I was with my boyfriend, Harry [Styles] and I just went out for lunch one day. And everyone was like: “They’re dating!” Can everyone just f***ing chill? It’s kind of sexist.’

MISBHV shearling jacket, £1,563 (misbhv.com)

She is, after all, of a generation that refuses to accept this sort of thing as part of being a woman in the public eye. ‘It’s a crazy time in the world. Women are the f***ing future. And we’re going to take over the world. That’s really what I think. I think if you’re not a feminist, you’re sexist. Both men and women. My idea of feminism is just wanting equality. It’s just wanting women to be treated the same and to have equal opportunities. I guess we just need to teach the younger generation. Whatever I can do in my circle, however I can use my platform to get things out — that’s the most important thing for me.’

As she says goodbye, I notice the small tattoo on her hand. It says: ‘Patience’.

‘That was the last tattoo I got. I put it on my hand so I would always see it. Patience really is a virtue. It’s always served me well to wait and learn more about myself. And always be nice — that’s probably the most important.’

Dua Lipa plays Brixton Academy on 6 Nov, with a full UK arena tour scheduled for next April. Her self-titled debut album is out now

Photographs by Luc Coiffait.

Styled by Richard Sloan.

Hair by Sam Burnett.

Make-up by Francesca Brazzo.

Nails by Michelle Humphrey

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