Morning Sessions with Dua Lipa | Rolling Stone

The next woman does not need any introduction. If you've been anywhere near a radio, anywhere near a computer, anywhere near YouTube, you know who Dua Lipa is. She has over, I think it's now like 1.3 billion views on her New Rules video. Without further ado, Dua Lipa. Hi. Good to see you. Hi. How are you? I'm great. Thanks again for coming. I know you have a super busy schedule. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to have you here. Everybody I know is such a huge fan. One of my friends who is a mother of a 9-year-old boy told me just yesterday, she's like still dreading the day when she's going to have to explain to her son what it means if you're under him, ain't getting over him. I feel like she might not have to explain it to him. I feel like that will come with time. He'll understand it. Tell me a little bit about what it's been like. Last year, you obviously already were a star and having a great moment. But now, a year later, everyone's talking about you. What is that like going from that that quickly and doing that? Well, I guess it's quite a crazy transition. I never really expected New Rules to kind of do what it did. I always wanted the music to kind of reach a bigger audience, and I wanted people to hear it. I'm so grateful for the response that the song has had and the album has had. It's kind of changed my life, but it has been a crazy whirlwind. I've never spent more than a day or two max in one place. In total, this whole year, I've spent about a month at home in London. But it's been amazing. I've traveled the world, and I've seen lots of different places. I've been touring for about two and a half years now, solidly. This was before the album came out, and then I started the album tour. And it's been really exciting to kind of see the rooms grow and the venues grow and seeing the fans. A lot of the same fans come to the shows, but then also lots of new fans. It's been such an amazing experience. Tell me a little bit about that, because that's the part that I think if I had to live your life, I'd be freaked out by, the fans. I know they're great, but also there's a lot. It's a lot of extra when it comes to fans. So how do you deal with that? I think when you're in the public eye, you kind of open yourself up to a lot of opinions. And I'm really, really grateful because for my whole career, really, I've had so much support from the fans. And I've been so lucky that from day one, when I kind of released Hotter Than Hell, which was, I feel like, in a way, my breakout song to a lot of people online, that they came up to me and were like, oh, I was able to relate to this song, and this song made me feel empowered. And it was the first song that I kind of wrote that was really close to my heart, that was this kind of false sense of confidence because it came from a place where I was quite heartbroken. It was about someone who didn't treat me very well. And I wrote that song kind of flipping the script and making it seem as if this person wanted me so badly, although that wasn't the case at all. And people were like, oh, this song made me feel empowered. And I realized that by just being myself and being honest and kind of just writing songs that made me feel good, I was also, you know, not just doing something for myself, but also for other people. And they allowed me to not be afraid of my own words and not be afraid of my own thoughts. And that opened me up in a whole new way because I feel like I was going to release my album in 2016. Then I moved it to 2017. And I kind of, I delayed it a few times because I just wanted to kind of add songs that I felt showed who I am as a person, but as well as an artist. And yeah, I mean, it's been amazing. And I think with now that the fan base is growing and a lot more people are finding out, like I said at the beginning, you're opening up yourself to so many different opinions. And I think you do in certain ways have to have quite tough skin to deal with a lot of people kind of saying different things about, you know, your songs or your performance or your videos or whatever it may be. But I've kind of taken criticism, good or bad, and I've turned it into something that I can always learn from and something that makes me stronger and something that hopefully the next time I do something, it will, I don't know, I'll grow. And everything has happened so fast that I've done a lot of my learning on the job. Well, but I do think I read that, like, one of your fans started to call you out that you weren't following your own rules from New Rules. Yeah. And you responded. So, I mean, obviously you're not going to stay in one kind of position. It's also a pop song. It is a pop song. It's also about someone that's toxic in your life. Right. When the song kind of came out, there were so many memes where people were like, I'm not even picking up the phone to my dad or my brothers. And I was like, all right, that's pretty funny. But I think the kind of joke of the song kind of took a whole new meaning to actually what the song is and what the video is, which is about friends kind of supporting each other and helping each other whenever they need that person to guide them. I know that personally I'm way better at giving advice and helping other people than I am at taking my own. Yep. And it tends to be my friends that are always the people that kind of ground me and, you know, help steer me in the right direction, which is, yeah, just, that was really the inspiration behind the video. Well, I'm really curious about the video. One of the things I've sort of noticed in your videos is even though you are talking, you know, to these men who maybe treated you badly or that you're trying to deal with, it's always women who are in the videos, and it does seem like it's a group of really strong women that you are trying to have a bond with. So is that intentional, or did you think about how there's not really a lot of men in your videos? Well, I think I've always loved hanging out with girls. My best friends are mainly girls. I love touring with lots of girls. I have an amazing band who are guys. But, you know, it's, I, personally, I just feel a lot easier sometimes speaking to girls and talking about certain things because I feel like they understand me more. And, I don't know, it's just more fun. Yeah. There's really nothing else about it. I haven't, I feel like because of the way of, like, the current, like, social situation, people think that, you know, maybe I'm, or maybe people are using female empowerment as, like, a big tool in their videos or whatever. But I feel like women should have been or should be championed always in lots of different ways. Yeah, I mean, one of the things that it does seem like people do see when they are enjoying with your music is that idea that women should have been getting this kind of attention and getting this sort of power in music. Do you feel like things are changing for women, especially younger women? Absolutely. I feel like, I mean, growing up, there's always been those big pop, female pop stars that I've always looked up to. And I feel like for so long, there's always been the stigma behind female pop stars because when a male pop star comes on the scene, people instantly believe that they write their own songs, that they direct their own videos, that they do all this. It's just kind of, it's like an instant. It's like, oh, well, you know. Whereas if you're a female artist and you're not sat by a piano or a guitar or you're not kind of playing an instrument and you're kind of performing a song, people instantly think that you're manufactured and you're no longer kind of authentic to yourself. And I feel like for a very long time, women really have to fight a bit more to get the recognition that they deserve and to get kind of the, you know, people to really believe them that they are who they really are. And I think now there's just come a point in time where we feel very, very confident in our skin and we allow ourselves to just be whoever we want to be without the fear of thinking that other people are going to diminish that. So obviously, as you said, you've been traveling so much and it is hard to be able to meet new people and have new friendships. Are there other people that you either look up to or that have come to you to help you in this progress? I mean, I hope that you have some support, you know, that is out there helping you. I have, I mean, I have a lot of support starting from like my friends and family at home to my team and my band who I've kind of been doing it for a lot longer than I have and have really been like my family abroad and have made every single place where we travel to, they've made it a home. I don't know, they've really helped guide me in a way where, you know, they've allowed me to just be myself and to not be afraid of the things that I want to do and to allow, you know, my inspiration and who I am to come out, for example, in the live shows, in the videos, in the performances and everything. And also the amazing artists that I've had the chance to work with who, again, everyone that I've worked with has been doing this for a bit longer than I have and it's been amazing to see how hard-working, how humble, how down-to-earth they are, how important it is to just stay really true to yourself and just be nice. On top of all this, though, you are working on new music and I know Mark Ronson recently kind of hinted at some of that and then you gave us some hints on Instagram with these amazing fingernails that you have here. Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on? Yeah. So both those things are two separate projects. I am working on my second album, which I started working on at the beginning of the year and I'm constantly, whenever I have like a couple of days free, I just go to the studio. It also kind of helps me get away from, like, tour life and, you know, all the traveling and stuff. It makes me feel a bit grounded. And I have a collaboration coming up with Mark Ronson and Diplo. It's their kind of hybrid project that they're creating called Silk City. And we did a song together, which I'm really excited about. It's, again, something different, but it does lead into some of the new music that I'm going to bring in my album. There are some, like, throwback elements to it. It's dancey, it's still a pop song, but yeah, it's fun. And I just shot the video, which I shot it the day before yesterday, but it finished at 7 a.m. yesterday morning. Oh, wow. All right. So we shot all through the night. And it wasn't in the Louvre in the middle of the night? It wasn't in the Louvre. Okay. No, it wasn't, unfortunately. It was in New Jersey. But it was amazing. I think it was something that I've never done before. I kind of, again, allowed myself to open up and not be afraid of my dance moves, because I've never really prided myself on being a dancer. I've never really felt like that was something that I love doing when I'm on stage. I just kind of go crazy, and I run around, and I throw myself, and I kick, and I jump. Yeah, whereas I've always kind of felt like I've shied away from that aspect of my career, in a way. And I have this amazing choreographer called Toogie who's helped me on the New Rules video, and she's helped me kind of hone in my live performance, dancing-wise, because, again, like I said, it's always been something that I haven't been very comfortable with. And this is the first time where I felt really, really confident in just being myself and doing me in a music video regardless that there were hundreds of people in the room kind of doing everything. I just feel like it feels like a really clear step into a new direction for me. And also for this new album, writing it has come a lot easier than writing the first. And I feel, again, it's just this whole process that I feel like I've learned a lot from. I've taken on good and bad criticism, and I've just allowed it to help me become better at what I do. Now, I know it's really rough, though, when you're doing those rehearsals for choreography. Was there anything where she's like, stop doing that, or just to do everything like 20 times? No, I think the thing with Toogie is if there's something that I can't do but I can do it in my own way, she much prefers that because it comes more naturally to me. And you kind of want something that works better for you rather than forcing something that you just can't do. Like I said, I'm not a dancer, so it's much easier for me to pick up a song and learn it rather than a dance routine. And so being able to alter things that work for me is how I want to try and see things for the rest of my life, not just in dance, but being able to make things work in the best way possible for me to be able to do it the best I can. So one of the things that we all notice at Rolling Stone and that definitely with the people that we had here today speaking is that genre really doesn't seem to matter anymore. And I know you were really heavily influenced by hip-hop and rap when you were younger. Yeah. And now I read that maybe you're also getting into a Prince vibe. Is that true? I feel, well, I've been listening, it was only really Electric Chair on repeat that I was listening to for quite a while. And I think it's just such an amazing song sonically and lyrically. And for this new album, I was listening to Early Outkast, I was listening to Prince, I was listening to Gnarls Barkley, I was just listening to lots of songs and lyrics that have really influenced me and trying to kind of make that work in my own way. You know, it's still pop. I'm not kind of taking away from that. The songs are still dance-crying songs where I feel like you could dance to, but, I mean, it makes sense in the title. I don't really know how to explain it any other way. But it has some throwback elements, which I'm excited about because, like I said, it's like a new direction for me and I'm looking forward to it. Great. And now I know you also worked with Max Martin and it sounds like he's also helped influence and shape what you've been working on. Yeah, we worked together for a little bit. I think we might do some more stuff together because I'm still kind of honing in what I want to do and maybe those earlier songs that we wrote aren't what's going to end up on the final thing. But, you know, we probably would want to work together again. But his attention to detail and the way he writes songs and there is kind of like a theory to the pop and the way I write songs is very spontaneous or the way I write music in general is just I go based off lyrics and ideas and I care about the story more than I do about the melody, whereas Max cares more about the melody. And I think when we worked together, it just worked really, really well. Of course he cares about the story, but it was a lot about kind of being able to merge the two together. I'm the kind of person that would change a melody to fit the lyric. So it was really interesting to work and learn from someone so amazing and so inspiring and that's done this for many, many years. So to keep up on your theme of friends and family and how busy you are, I know your dad has a festival that's going on and you're going to be there and it's next week, right? It is next week. So how did, I mean, as if you don't have more to do. More things to do. Well, it's actually really exciting because two years ago I went back to Kosovo, which is the place where my parents are from and I lived there from the age of 11 to 15. And when I moved back to London at 15, I kind of started focusing on music and I got so busy writing songs and trying to kind of put music out that I didn't really have the chance to kind of keep going back to Kosovo and visiting. And when I released my first song, New Love, I feel like a lot of the views to begin with came from people in Kosovo. They were very supportive. We're a very, very small place and so they're very patriotic and they champion anyone that's from Kosovo that's doing anything on a global scale or just in their hometown. And I wanted to go back and give back to a community that gives me so much and I wanted to do my own show. And my dad helped me organize the whole thing and we felt bad taking money because I think after the war and everything that happened, it's kind of more of a place that needs things to be given back to them. And we decided to open up a foundation called the Sunny Hill Foundation and all the ticket proceedings went into that charity where we would then give back to the youth of Kosovo in creative arts and helping in more things than just the creative arts because there is a lot more need. There's quite a bit of poverty and so we want this charity to be long-lived and we want to bring more culture and tourism or international artists to Kosovo and show them around and bring them to a place where I feel like I mention it so often and people are like, I don't know where that is, that sounds really exotic. My dad has always had this idea of bringing a festival down and we had a lot of help from our friends and he's been planning it for a while and we've kind of all done it together and it happens next week. It's very exciting. I'm going to play, Action Bronson's going to come down, Martin Garrix is going to come down. We've got Sinaj, Gashi, we've got Coltrane, SG Lewis, lots of artists. I'm looking forward to it and hopefully it will go down well and we can do it again and we can have lots more people coming down. And you're going to put Kosovo on the map for a different reason. Well, you know, Kosovo, I think a lot of artists have been putting Kosovo on the map because Rita Ora, Bebe Rexha, again Action Bronson, all these people have been kind of making their own mark and have been putting it on the map. It's just another way to kind of bring tourism and bring a lot of people, introducing them to another place in the world. Yeah. So now everyone is eagerly waiting when the video is going to come out and the music is going to come out. The album you're not planning until next year, but maybe you'll change your mind. I think, well, I'm touring until the end of September. Right. And then I think I'm just going to take some time out and just write. And I feel like because I've been touring for such a long time, I've kind of got a bit of time on my hands where I can just really take my time on the album and make sure it is perfect in my eyes for a solid second album that I want to put out. And it has to kind of be a new chapter in my life. So I want to make sure it's the right thing. And I want the art to be subjective. I think, again, another thing about being in the public eye, a lot of people will have speculations about who's this song about or what's this about? And of course, I'm not going to stop being honest about my music, regardless of the amount of attention the first album has had and I guess I have had in a way. And it's just, they're all songs that give, that leave enough room for subjection that you can take the song and make it your own. And it doesn't necessarily have to say, have the same meaning for you as it does for me. And that's what I'm really looking forward to. So this is, this is a little bit of a question that no one likes hearing, but I'm curious, where do you see yourself in the next five years or something? Where do you see music going and what do you want to have happen? Well, that's a really tricky question, but I think the way music is heading now is really interesting to see. You see two artists that you wouldn't ever expect to collaborate collaborating and you want to see a lot more of that. You want to see a lot more female artists and lots of award show performances getting nominated for a lot more awards. I feel like equality in the music industry is something that's needed a lot more. Personally, I would want to carry on doing this. I want to tour. I want to write more albums. I want to see the rooms growing. I want to headline Glastonbury one day. There are, yeah, there are lots of things that I want to do and I feel like just everything this job has given me and my fans have given me the opportunity to do, I'm so grateful for. I couldn't have, I couldn't have dreamt this up. This is way better than what I thought it was ever going to be. That's great. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much.