Dua Lipa on Big Year, Upcoming Special Performance Featuring a 53-Piece Orchestra

Pop superstar Dua Lipa is having a very big year. Her third album Radical Optimism went to number one in 11 countries and she kicked off a world tour as well, headlining the Glastonbury Music Festival. And now we are getting an evening with Dua Lipa. It is a special concert that reimagines all of her hit songs performed with a 53-piece orchestra. Here's a little tease of her with Sir Elton John. How about that for a little hit of dopamine. That feels good. Special performance is going to air Sunday night right here on CBS and Paramount Plus, but first we're happy to say that Dua Lipa joins us this morning. Good morning to you. Good morning. What a knockout, just unbelievable performance this is. Oh thank you so much. And I know it must have taken so much to put together because the Royal Albert Hall is such a grand in the round place. It's a venue like no other. Why were you so excited about performing there and what did it take to put it together? Well for one it was always on the top of my list of places that I've been dreaming to perform in and I just love, you know, the theatre element of the venue and how grand it is but also very intimate. And while I've been doing big shows I've always wanted to get closer to the audience, closer to my listeners and to create a show that felt very intimate was something that I felt like I hadn't done in a long time. And to put this show together I basically, the whole inspiration behind Radical Optimism was inspired by live music like while I was on tour and so it only felt right to reimagine this record with an orchestra and I got to work with the Heritage Orchestra who was also on the top of my list of dream people to work with because it's just a massive 53-piece orchestra ensemble. That was surreal. It also seemed like you were striking a blow for pop music in general, right? People think oh it's just pop music but then you put the orchestra together and it completely fills that hole. Well it completely helps you reimagine everything. You hear the lyrics differently, you feel the music differently and for me in particular it was incredibly emotional hearing my songs reimagined in that way and then standing in the middle around 53 incredible musicians just it's like it's riveting it like it moves you in such a different way and I feel like everyone in the audience felt it was such a joyous moment in the room and performing in the round for me was a very new experience and I just I loved every moment. It was my favorite performance I've done in a very long time. You can feel the intimacy just watching and because also you can see the audience members you must have felt that like everyone's bright and so clearly but I love what you talk about in your performance about really stripping down your music, getting closer to your music, closer to yourself. You talk about dyeing your hair back to black from red. My husband loved the red by the way. The black one's great too but what what does that feel like? Does it feel different on stage when you feel like you're just being that much more vulnerable? I think it's just getting closer back to myself and when it's closer to the music it's really where I feel like I'm supposed to be you know the live instruments is really what moves me and I don't know I found the performance in itself exciting but then also really inspiring for I don't know new things. Yeah we we saw the clip of you with Sir Elton John and you say that that's one of your bucket list moments and you said it was even more special because of the recent health issues. What is it like having someone like that so close and have a relationship with him? Well it's surreal even thinking about it in that way you know I've listened to Elton's music my whole life and to have someone like Elton be a friend and be somebody who supported me from the very beginning of my career to you know championing me and being by my side and then showing up for me in this in this capacity. What's your biggest lesson you learned from him? Just to keep learning and constantly evolving you know he's somebody who's just so in love with music and is constantly looking for new ways to expand and grow you know even even with the career that he has had it's inspiring to see him so hungry and so in love with it. To reinvent himself so many times. Exactly and I think that's that's probably the biggest lesson is that it just it never really stops you're just constantly learning and growing and that to me is what I would like to do. Yeah you are doing it. Speaking of learning and growing maybe my favorite part of the special was when you got to surprise your childhood music teacher Ray. Oh gosh. Tell them how much they meant to you. Let's play that clip real quick and talk about it. I just don't think the boundaries you know stretch enough so I was always trying to find things that were tricky for her to do. Hi. Oh my lordy lordy lordy lordy. How you doing? I didn't know you were going to turn up kid. Well that that worked out as you hoped right? Oh my gosh I hadn't seen him in 10 years and he was actually the hardest person to get in touch with. Really? Yeah the hardest out of anyone and he thought he was going to come down and do an interview and you know teachers are so incredibly important and a good teacher can really change the trajectory of of a child's life really and Ray for me changed my life. He made me believe that I could do it. He told me that I had something special worth looking and you held on to dig a little deeper and I held on to that. That was really the thing that I kept coming back to was the fact that Ray was like hey maybe you've got something here like work at it keep going and you know I think about it all the time. He's somebody that I think about very often because of what he had taught me and so to have had that moment with him was beautiful. Thank you so much. We appreciate you and Evening with Dua Lipa airs this Sunday 8 30 p.m eastern here on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.