{"id":598898,"date":"2023-11-25T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/awards-chatter-podcast-dua-lipa-barbie\/"},"modified":"2023-11-25T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T13:00:00","slug":"awards-chatter-podcast-dua-lipa-barbie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/awards-chatter-podcast-dua-lipa-barbie\/","title":{"rendered":"#\u2018Awards Chatter\u2019 Podcast \u2014\u00a0Dua Lipa (\u2018Barbie\u2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Dua Lipa<\/strong>, the guest on this episode of <em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u2019s <em>Awards Chatter<\/em> podcast, is a three-time Grammy-winning singer\/songwriter who is one of the biggest pop stars in the world. A Brit who has been described by <em>The New York Times<\/em> as \u201ca powerhouse young artist,\u201d by <em>Vanity Fair<\/em> as a \u201cbona fide superstar\u201d and by <em>TIME<\/em> as one of the most influential people in the world, she has to her name hit singles like \u201cLevitating,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Start Now,\u201d \u201cCold Heart,\u201d \u201cLast Dance,\u201d \u201cNew Rules,\u201d \u201cHoudini\u201d and, from <strong>Greta Gerwig<\/strong>\u2019s critically acclaimed summer blockbuster <em>Barbie<\/em>, \u201cDance the Night,\u201d which on Nov. 10 garnered Grammy nominations for song of the year and best song written for visual <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>, and is now very much in the running for a best original song Oscar nomination as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Over the course of a conversation at the London West Hollywood, the 28-year-old reflected on her childhood split between London and Kosovo; how she wound up signing her first record deal in 2015; the origins and bangers of her 2017 self-titled debut album and her 2020 pandemic-era second album <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em>; how she came to be a part of <em>Barbie<\/em> and wrote, with <strong>Mark Ronson<\/strong>, <strong>Caroline Ailin<\/strong> and <strong>Andrew Wyatt<\/strong>, \u201cDance the Night\u201d; plus much more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    You can listen to and\/or read the conversation below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"pmc-protected-embed-2\" class=\"pmc-protected-embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=PMC9166218611\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Dua, thank you so much for doing the podcast. Can you tell our listeners where you were born and what your folks did for a living?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah. I was born in London in 1995, and at that point, my parents were working in bars and restaurants while at the same time studying in the evening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>People talk about <em>your<\/em> work ethic, and I know it\u2019s major, but theirs sound pretty incredible too\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah. Well, I think I get most of my \u2014 not most, I get my work ethic from my parents and seeing them really adapt to any situation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Now you\u2019ve spoken about how a lot of your mindset and worldview has been shaped by \u201cthe immigrant experience.\u201d You were born in London, but your parents were not. How did they wind up there?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    They fled the Yugoslavian War. They left Kosovo then. My dad was in a band \u2014\u00a0he was in a rock group \u2014 but he was studying to be a dentist, and my mom was studying law at the time. In 1992, they decided to leave Kosovo and come to London. And their life completely changed at that point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>The fact that your dad had been involved with music, was that part of what got you into music as a kid? How early on were you listening to and kind of a fan of music?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I think from the moment I came out the womb I was listening to music. Music was so present in my life. Both my parents have always been singing around the house, playing artists that they love. I think I had a good range of knowledge of a lot of amazing artists and songs way before I could even speak. And so music just felt like second nature to me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>When we listen to your music now, it makes sense based on who you were personally into as a kid\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah. Artists that my parents listened to a lot were David Bowie and Elton John and Oasis and Blur, and then Blondie. It was such a mix of so many different artists. And I think for me, after listening to and loving all the music that my parents listened to, that became then my favorite music and the music that I always go back to as the music that makes me feel the best. Then, I was maybe nine, 10 or 11 when I discovered my favorite pop artists. And that was like\u2014<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Nelly Furtado?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Nelly Furtado. It was the <em>Whoa, Nelly!<\/em> album that really changed my life. Then it was <em>Misunderstood<\/em> by Pink. And also Songs in A Minor by Alicia Keys. All of these women have such a strong identity, and when you\u2019re a young girl and you hear these artists and their stories \u2014 I just felt so connected. So all I wanted to do was sing their songs and listen to their music. They had so much independence and strength and attitude that I was like, \u201cWhen I grow up, I want to be just like them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>That being said, I\u2019ve heard \u2014\u00a0and I could not believe \u2014\u00a0that you were being told as a kid that you didn\u2019t sing well?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I wanted to sing for the school choir, and I have a very deep voice. I think my speaking voice is quite deep, and my singing voice is also like \u2014 me being able to go down octaves is my forte. At the time, my high register just wasn\u2019t developed at all. There was a school choir and the music teacher was like, \u201cOkay, who wants to audition for the choir?\u201d And I was like, \u201cAll right, I\u2019m going to get up and I\u2019m going to sing.\u201d And he starts playing on the piano and I\u2019m trying to reach this high note and nothing but air comes out and I\u2019m so embarrassed\u00a0\u2014 and it\u2019s in school assembly, so I\u2019m in front of all the kids of all ages, and I\u2019m absolutely mortified in the moment, and he\u2019s like, \u201cOh, maybe next time.\u201d And I never got the place in the choir. But it was a big moment for me, in the sense of having the confidence to stand up in front of people sing \u2014\u00a0and not having the outcome that I wanted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I was very young to have that experience, but because I loved to sing, my mom signed me up for Saturday classes at Sylvia Young Theater School. I was nine years old when I started going there, and every Saturday I would go and do singing lessons. I had this really great teacher there called Ray, and he heard my voice and really liked my low register, and he was like, \u201cYou know what? I\u2019m going to change your class and I\u2019m going to put you in the 9:30 am class,\u201d which was with the 14 and 15 year olds. I was terrified. I was like, \u201cOh my God, I have to go in with the teenagers \u2014 how am I going to get up and sing in front of them?!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    And he really helped me to believe in myself and have the confidence to stand up in front of the teenagers and sing and feel good about it. It wasn\u2019t that my parents didn\u2019t tell me that I could sing; my parents always told me, \u201cOh, you\u2019ve got a good voice and you can sing.\u201d But I think hearing it from somebody that\u2019s not your mom or your dad means a lot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Then, just as you\u2019re developing some belief in your own abilities, you guys end up leaving to go back to Kosovo?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>What were the circumstances that led to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    My parents always had the idea of going back to Kosovo. I think whenever somebody leaves a place because of the war, they leave because of the potential of having a better life, but always wanting to go back to your home, to your family, to the things that that you\u2019ve grown up around. And Albanian was my first language. I\u2019d always spoken English at school and with my friends, but I also spoke a mix of English and Albanian at home, and so when my parents decided that we were going to move back to Kosovo when I was 11 and finishing year six, which is just the end of primary school, I was like, \u201cOkay.\u201d All my friends from my primary school were going to go to different schools anyway. I was going to go to a different country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>So you weren\u2019t terribly devastated.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I wasn\u2019t terribly. I was quite excited at the idea of going back. I lived in Pristina for four years, from 11 to 15. I think the thing that was the most interesting was adapting to being the new girl in school and being like, \u201cNot only am I starting in a new school, but I have to adapt to people already having formed friendships.\u201d At the same time, I knew I could speak Albanian, but I thought I could speak it way better than I did because at home everything was fine. When I went to Kosovo, everyone was like, \u201cOh, you\u2019re speaking Albanian, but almost with an English accent or something.\u201d So it took me a little while to not only get down with the slang \u2014 to learn it grammatically \u2014\u00a0and read and write properly in Albanian, but also be thrown into new friendships and new studies that were so much more advanced than what I was learning in London. I was doing fractions, and then I went and was doing algebra in Albanian. So it was a very big kind of push for me out my comfort zone, while at the same time giving me the opportunity to be really in touch with my roots and my family and my language and my heritage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>And were you continuing your singing when you got back there?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah. I had music lessons in school there, so I was singing there. And I think that\u2019s when I did my first performance in front of a crowd. It was like a school event, and I chose to sing \u201cNo One\u201d by Alicia Keys. I think there\u2019s a video of it online. I\u2019m so small.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>It went well?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    It went well. You can see me holding the mic and being quite nervous, and then people clap, and I think, with confidence, I put my other hand on the mic. But also, my time that I spent in Kosovo made me realize how badly I wanted to do music and how I needed to go back to London and be in a place where everything was h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ening \u2014\u00a0where I maybe <em>might<\/em> have the opportunity to try and do this as a job. I didn\u2019t feel like I could get discovered in Kosovo. Things were completely different then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>You were there when they declared independence, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I was there when independence got declared, yes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>But it was still going to be a long shot to get any kind of career going there\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Absolutely. Our world\u2019s just getting so much smaller, but at that time, when I was 13, 14, 15, living in Kosovo, it just wasn\u2019t possible to be in a place like that and hope that you might get heard. And so I wanted to go back to London.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>So how does the conversation go? You\u2019re 15 and say to your parents, \u201cI\u2019m out of here\u201d \u2014 how did you get them to go along with this?!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I have younger siblings \u2014 I\u2019ve got a younger sister and a younger brother \u2014\u00a0and when I saw them turn 15, in my head I was like, \u201cI have no idea how I managed to pull this off and get them to let me live on my own.\u201d I was just so determined that I wanted to be in London. I wanted to go back to school in London. I also wanted the opportunity to maybe go to uni in London \u2014 I had to go and finish my GCSCs there and get my exams done. Anyway, I\u2019m a very convincing young lady. I think that\u2019s what I\u2019ve gathered from when I go back and ask my parents. Every time, I go and ask my parents, \u201cHow did you let me do that?!\u201d It\u2019s so amazing that they had so much trust in me. They are like, \u201cYou were just so determined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I feel like I always knew what I wanted to do from a very young age. In order for them to feel safe about the situation and good about leaving me in London \u2014\u00a0of course I had so many friends and family in London, but a family friend of ours, their daughter was moving to London \u2014 to study at the London School of Economics \u2014 from Pristina. And so we decided that we were going to flat-share \u2014 we were going to live together \u2014\u00a0and I was going to go to school and she was going to go to uni. And that was that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>I believe you also did some waitressing, some hostessing, and a little modeling during that period?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I always loved having a job. My first job was when I was 12 or 13 years old. I was in Pristina and I remember walking home and there was a pharmacy that I had just passed by and there was a woman selling makeup products. It was like the Avon equivalent, but it was a Swedish brand. And I was like, \u201cOh, I could do this,\u201d slang makeup to the girls in school. I just love the idea of always working. I love to work. And then when I moved to London, I worked in different retail stores. Then as I got older, I started going out,\u00a0and I was going out a little underage\u2014<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>The statute of limitations has expired\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I was going out and I made some friends in a club, and my first job in a club was when I was 17 and I was working at the door. It was fun. I made some very interesting friends \u2014 interesting people in my life that I think just really shaped my experience of being young and living in London and that club culture \u2014 and I think that all of those things trickled into my music and my inspiration and where that all came from. Then I left that job because I remember one night my friends couldn\u2019t get in to the club \u2014 they didn\u2019t let me let them in \u2014\u00a0and I was like, \u201cI just don\u2019t want to do this anymore, this is just so horrible.\u201d So then I went to work at La Bodega Negra, which was an upscale Mexican restaurant in Soho. And I worked there up until the point that I got signed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>This was when YouTube and SoundCloud were really starting to get going \u2014\u00a0things that may have made it feel more possible to make it when you were in Kosovo, if they had existed. But now you were posting covers online, and then I think you were doing some vocals for a commercial, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yes, exactly. That kind of goes back to what you were saying about modeling. While I was in school, I was posting covers online \u2014 I would just be like, \u201cHey, I\u2019m Dua, I\u2019m 15 years old and this is my cover of \u2018Super Duper Love\u2019 by Joss Stone.\u201d And I was posting a lot online and also, at the same time, always working. I had been scouted in Oxford Circus for a modeling agency, but I was put on a commercial board and got sent out to do some auditions and stuff. And basically, I did a commercial \u2014\u00a0I had to do the singing for it \u2014\u00a0and I worked with a producer for two weeks on that, and afterwards he was like, \u201cHey, do you want to maybe write a song?\u201d And I was like, \u201cAbsolutely, I would love to get in the studio and write a song together!\u201d We wrote a song, and then I didn\u2019t hear from him for a while. And then he contacted me and he was like, \u201cHey, I would love to talk to you about a potential publishing deal.\u201d I was like, \u201cA publishing deal? I don\u2019t even know what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Through the covers that I\u2019d posted online on YouTube and on Twitter and SoundCloud, there was a young producer called Felix Joseph who had heard my cover of Chance the Rapper\u2019s \u201cCocoa Butter Kisses\u201d from SoundCloud. He had contacted me and was like, \u201cHey, if you ever want to work in the studio together, let me know, but in the meantime, if you need anything, this is my number.\u201d I\u2019d never met him, but I called him and I was like, \u201cHi Felix. I know we\u2019ve never met, but I was just wondering \u2014 I\u2019ve been offered a publishing deal and I don\u2019t even know what that is. Do you have anybody who could help me?\u201d And he was like, \u201cWell, I can\u2019t really give you advice on that, but I\u2019ve got a really good lawyer who you should go and meet and he can chat to you about it.\u201d And so at 17 years old, I go to this law firm in Hammersmith, in London, and I sit down with my lawyer \u2014\u00a0well, he then became my lawyer, but a lawyer called Lawrence \u2014 and he basically was like, \u201cLook, don\u2019t sign this deal. Let me help you find a manager.\u201d And he was the one who kind of sat me down and explained the ins and outs of what a publishing deal was and the different aspects of it. And that was the beginning of everything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Yeah. I guess he then connected you with Ben Mawson, who had been working with Lana Del Rey and became your manager. And you\u2019ve said at that point everything changed, in the sense that you soon had a record deal of your own.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Well, I was just going to the studio every single day and I was writing nonstop. There was a song that I\u2019d written with my friends Tommy Baxter, Adam Midgley and Gerard O\u2019Connell called \u201cHotter Than Hell,\u201d And that song kind of caught the attention of some record labels. Everything just started happening so fast. That was when I met my A&amp;R, Joe Kentish, who is a dear friend of mine \u2014 we still work together to this day because we just have such a great relationship just creating records together. But I don\u2019t know, I felt like he immediately understood who I was as an artist and gave me the space to really grow. I just felt really connected to him and I was like, \u201cYou know what? I\u2019m going to sign to Warner Records.\u201d And that\u2019s where I signed my deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    And then I threw a little drinks party at La Bodega Negra on the night that I signed, having also kind of handed in my resignation, with the hopes that maybe I wouldn\u2019t have to come back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>That was in 2015. I know there was a lot of touring and writing over the next two years, and milestones along the way that may seem not as big now as they did at the time \u2014 like going on <em>The Tonight Show<\/em> to perform \u201cScared to Be Lonely,\u201d I think?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah. Well, the first ever TV I did was <em>The Tonight Show<\/em> in 2016 \u2014\u00a0they were the first American TV that had me \u2014 and I actually sang \u201cHotter Than Hell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Oh! And all of this leading up to the release of your first, self-titled album, in 2017, which people now know went platinum, with six singles that went platinum. I wonder if we can talk about a couple of \u201ccase studies\u201d from that. \u201cLast Dance,\u201d you have said, \u201cwas the song where we figured out what my sound was going to be.\u201d I know that you\u2019ve separately said that you <em>always<\/em> wanted to combine hip-hop and pop. But how would you describe what your sound was as a result of \u201cLast Dance\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    It\u2019s quite interesting hearing that back because I haven\u2019t thought about that process of making my first record in a little while, especially as I\u2019ve been just busy and caught up in working on my new record. But there\u2019s always one song that for me dictates what the rest of it\u2019s going to sound like. Even though looking back on my first record, when I listen back to it, it feels to me there\u2019s so many songs of me figuring out where I was heading next. I was learning so much about myself in the process. I was writing for about three, four years, while at the same time releasing a lot of singles because I felt like I needed to put out a lot of songs in order to be heard before I even put out my first album. So it was a really, really long journey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Also at the same time, I basically toured the world three times with that one album, seeing the rooms get a little bit bigger every time. But the idea of merging hip hop and pop, it was because of my love for Nelly Furtado and then my love for J. Cole or my love for Kendrick. What I loved was the storytelling in hip hop and then the way that pop records \u2014 dance records \u2014 made you feel. But how was I going to put the two together? With the first album, there\u2019s so many songs that sound so different, but they really changed my life in so many ways, where I was learning and leaning in to the songwriting process of being vulnerable and talking about my experiences and emotions, with the idea that maybe someone out there might hear them. This was me spilling my guts essentially for everyone to hear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    But yeah, it was just such an amazing experience. And for \u201cLast Dance,\u201d in particular, what I loved was the electronic sounds in it, but at the same time, dancey pop sounds sonically with a real personal story intertwined. That was something that I really emotionally made me feel like I was on the right track for that record.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>And it was about being homesick, because you had been out on the road for so long?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    It was about being homesick. I\u2019d written that song in Toronto. It was, I think, October, and it was really cold, and I knew that I was going to be on the road for a really long time, and I was starting to get a little bit of my London blues. And that was the song that I wrote. I think it was more about people telling you that you\u2019re not good enough \u2014 it was a bit of an in-your-face record, like, \u201cI\u2019m not going to take that and I\u2019m going to stand my ground and I deserve to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Also on that first album<\/strong> <strong>was \u201cNew Rules,\u201d your first No. 1 in the U.K., first to break into the top 10 of the <em>Billboard<\/em> Hot 100, second song by a woman to hit a billion Spotify streams. You\u2019ve also talked about how, when you\u2019re singing, it\u2019s almost acting, as well, or at least inhabiting a character. So even if what you\u2019re singing about is not your experience or your feelings, you can flip it in your mind. Was that what you would say this was an example of?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah, definitely. It was also very interesting because I love to write all my own songs. I definitely felt like, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t know if I want to sing this song because I didn\u2019t write it.\u201d But it was a song that I resonated with so deeply. I embodied it. When I sang it, it was mine. And I felt like it was such a strong song about the things that you should or shouldn\u2019t do in your dating life, essentially. I felt so strong and empowered when I sang \u201cNew Rules.\u201d Sometimes you manifest an energy into your life \u2014 as time\u2019s gone by and I\u2019ve written other songs, I\u2019ve really felt that to be true. It\u2019s like the more you sing something, the more share it with people, you really embody that energy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>And that was also the case, in terms of flipping things around, with \u201cHotter Than Hell,\u201d which is also on that album, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah. I was going through a bad relationship when I was writing my first record. And now, looking back\u2014   Once I put my songs out, I really don\u2019t listen to them unless I\u2019m preparing for tour or something. But it\u2019s very cathartic to just put them out into the world, and then they no longer belong to me. So now, looking back in hindsight, all the themes that were going through this record were a feeling of wanting to reclaim my strength and my power and where I stood in a relationship, and wanting to give myself this feeling of confidence and that no one could put me down. So it seems to be a common theme in the self-titled record.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>And it\u2019s interesting because what you said you were striving for there could be summed up in the phrase, \u201cI don\u2019t give a fuck,\u201d which is I think the last single that was actually written for that album, \u201cIDGAF\u201d\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    For the album, yeah. It was the last record that made it onto the self-titled album.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>So after that, but before the great second album, was the first time you worked with Mark Ronson, which is obviously going to connect back with <em>Barbie<\/em> in a little bit. Can you talk about how you guys first connected, with \u201cElectricity\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    It feels like it\u2019s all very full-circle now with everything <em>Barbie<\/em>-related. But I met Mark Ronson through my friend Andrew Wyatt. Andrew Wyatt and I had written the very first song I\u2019d ever released, called \u201cNew Love\u201d \u2014 it was me, Andrew Wyatt and Emil Haney \u2014 and it was the first thing that I ever put out with a video. I was very excited. And Andrew\u2019s a very, very close friend of mine \u2014\u00a0we did two songs on my first album together \u2014\u00a0and when Mark was working on Silk City, he was speaking to Andrew and was like, \u201cI\u2019m looking for an artist who wants to write a song with me, but who has a deeper, maybe soulful voice\u201d\u2014<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Which he had a little experience with, with Amy Winehouse, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh, I mean, I\u2019ve always just been such a big fan of Mark\u2019s work, but the Amy records are something that I hold very, very dear to my heart. But going back to Mark wanting someone with a deep kind of raspy voice, the first person that came to Andrew\u2019s mind was me. I\u2019m so grateful that I was the person that came to mind, and Mark reached out to me and was like, \u201cHey, I\u2019m a friend of Andrew\u2019s, and I really like your work, and I would love to write a song with you if you\u2019d be down. I\u2019m doing this thing called Silk City with Diplo.\u201d And I came to the studio here in LA, which was when Mark was living, and we worked on \u201cElectricity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>At the Grammys in 2019, you won best new artist and best dance recording for \u201cElectricity\u201d\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Yeah. It was all happening at the same time. It was just a really surreal moment in my life, that night at the Grammys. I mean, us winning the best dance recording and then me going on and getting best new artist, I just couldn\u2019t believe it. I was absolutely gobsmacked. I feel like even when I think about the speech or how I felt when I got up to accept my award \u2014 I think I blacked out in the moment. It just felt so unbelievable that it was happening to me. I was just so grateful. And really from that moment on, my whole life changed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>I was going to ask about that. I\u2019d love to hear how, on a day-to-day basis, it changed, but also, did you start feeling pressure or putting pressure on yourself? The sophomore album is usually intimidating, especially when you\u2019ve received so much positive feedback for your first album and then this single with Mark, because the question is, I guess, \u201cWhat do you do? Do you do more of the same kind of thing that\u2019s worked? Do you instead branch out and take a chance that people are going to respond to something very different?\u201d Take me through your outlook and thought process in the aftermath of suddenly becoming somebody that everybody knew\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Well, gosh, I mean, it was an interesting time in my life because I had a feeling of being celebrated, which was a really lovely feeling after doing something that you really love. But there was also this video online of me dancing and people were laughing at it or whatever. And that was really hard for me as a young artist because I was doing something that I really loved, but I felt the wrath of the internet. I had people telling me, \u201cOh, she\u2019s got no stage presence,\u201d or \u201cShe doesn\u2019t deserve to be here,\u201d or \u201cShe\u2019s just not good enough,\u201d or whatever. So I had a lot of that also weighing on top of feeling like I\u2019m on cloud nine and I\u2019m in this really special place in my life and let\u2019s see where I\u2019m going to go next.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    It was an interesting thing to juggle, but what I decided, which was the best decision I\u2019d ever made, was I was like, \u201cRight, I\u2019m going to have to start making my new record. I\u2019m going to get off Twitter \u2014 I\u2019m deleting this thing off my phone. I don\u2019t want to look at it. I don\u2019t want to think about what other people might want me to do. I don\u2019t want to recreate the success that I had with my first album. I\u2019m so grateful for everything that that record gave me. But I want to branch out. I want to do something different. I want to push myself outside of my comfort zone and prove that I\u2019m here to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I had that real fire in my chest. I was adamant to create something that I was really, really proud of, that felt very refined in the sense of, like with my first record, a lot of different songs of me figuring out who I was. This <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em> album was very much carefully curated for it to all be one world. And it was my first kind of experience of creating an \u201cera,\u201d I guess.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    It was the idea of going back to my early influences, the things that made me feel nostalgic, that made me feel like there was a place where I could be seen and heard \u2014 and disco music did that for me. Disco music has done that for history. It\u2019s always been a place of freedom and community and togetherness, and it was the genre of music that brought people together from all walks of life where they could feel like a unit or feel like they were around like-minded people. And that was really the energy that I wanted to bring into <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em>, but also with influences of Jamiroquai and Maloko and these artists that were just so inspiring to me when I was younger, that I loved so much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>You poured your heart and soul into this album, which was supposed to come out on March 27, 2020, and then on March 12 or thereabouts, the world shuts down because of the pandemic. How close did we come to not having <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em> come out when it did?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    It was so heartbreaking because I had started promoting my record already. The last thing I did was I performed at Mardi Gras in Sydney. I remember landing back home in London and all of a sudden things were getting very, very serious. Then it was like, \u201cOkay, things are going to shut down.\u201d And I was about to go on tour, so it was like, \u201cOkay, we\u2019re going to postpone the tour for a couple of months and see.\u201d And then things were just like, \u201cNo, they\u2019re completely shutting down.\u201d And so then it was a whole conversation of, \u201cWell, are we going to release the record at this time? What should we do?\u201d And I felt so strongly: Even though in my head I\u2019d envisioned that this was an album that was going to be heard out and get people dancing, I don\u2019t know, it felt necessary to me to get it out there. And I was like, \u201cYou know what? Whatever\u2019s supposed to happen with it will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Of course, people loved it. It lifted a lot of spirits.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    And it kept people dancing \u2014 in their homes. I\u2019m very, very grateful, that it was the album that did that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>As we did with the first album, can I just prompt you for a couple more \u201ccase studies\u201d? Of course, we\u2019ve got to talk about \u201cLevitating.\u201d This was as big as a song can be: it spent 77 weeks on the <em>Billboard<\/em> Hot 100, becoming only the fifth song ever to spend 70 or more weeks on that chart, which goes back to 1958; most weeks ever on that chart for a song by a woman, passing LeAnn Rimes\u2019 \u201cHow do I Live?\u201d; 41 weeks in the top 10, the most ever for a song by a woman and second overall, behind only to The Weeknd\u2019s \u201cBlinding Lights\u201d; the longest charting single in the history of Warner Records; and the list goes on. How did that one come together? And why do you think that of all the great songs on that album, that\u2019s the one that took off in that way?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Well, you never really know with a song, I think. But when I was working on \u201cLevitating,\u201d I went into the studio and Koz [Stephen Kozmeniuk], the producer, basically played a track that he was working on. And absolutely immediately, I pressed the record button on my Voice Memo app and just started the melody of \u201cLevitating.\u201d It was just such an instant feeling for me. I also did it with my really close friends, Sarah Hudson and Clarence Coffee Jr., and when you create something with really close friends and there\u2019s such a beautiful energy and you feel the excitement in the room, you hope that it translates the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I feel like that with a lot of experiences that I\u2019ve had with my music. I always go, \u201cI hope people feel it the same way I felt when I wrote it.\u201d And it was the song that dictated what the rest of the record was going to sound like. That was the one. And it was the time when I left the studio and I was like, \u201cOkay, I\u2019m onto something. I know what I\u2019m doing now.\u201d Yeah, that was the one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>\u201cDon\u2019t Start Now\u201d went to number two on the Hot 100, making it your highest-charting single to that point, and it went on to be nominated for the record of the year, song of the year and best pop solo performance Grammys. You spoke a bit already about your love for disco. I also read that you, like I, love that documentary about the Bee Gees\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Oh my God \u2014\u00a0God, I love that documentary about the Bee Gees! So good. <em>How Can You Mend a Broken Heart<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>And this song was an instant disco classic\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    That was the first song that I released from the <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em> record, really illustrating what the rest of the record was going to be like. It had all these nostalgic influences, disco influences, live instrumentation \u2014 but at the same time, it felt so fresh and new. And it was the moment where I revealed my two-tone hair, like the blonde with the dark underneath. And it was my first experience of really starting to create a world around my music. I have so many beautiful memories connected to that, and getting to work on it with my friends Emily Warren and Ian Kirkpatrick and Caroline Ailan. It was just such a massive kickstarter for me in getting people to see a whole \u2018nother side of me creatively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>And then there\u2019s \u201cBreak My Heart,\u201d the writing of which, you have said, took you out of your comfort zone \u2014 which showed you that it\u2019s actually a good thing to be out of your comfort zone when writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I was out of my comfort zone because it was very personal, it was very in-the-moment. Sometimes when I write things, like I said, I feel like maybe I manifest them. I was like, \u201cOh my God, am I going to write a song about a guy that\u2019s about to break my heart? I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m ready for this right now.\u201d But that\u2019s really how I felt in the moment, and I think I just learned how amazing it is to be so open about my own experiences. And actually \u201cBreak My Heart\u201d was the last one that I wrote for <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>So obviously everyone loved <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em>. Then there was \u201cCold Heart\u201d with Elton \u2014 it was fun to see you two perform that together at his last show in America. And then \u201cDance the Night,\u201d which I imagine was already in the works before that in order to be ready to include in <em>Barbie<\/em>. How did your involvement in that project come about? Who reached out, and what was the pitch?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Mark [Ronson] was the one who reached out to me. He was like, \u201cI\u2019ve been working on the music for the new <em>Barbie<\/em> film by Greta Gerwig, and it\u2019s quite possibly the funniest script I\u2019ve ever read. There\u2019s a big dance section in it, and I would absolutely love for you to write it with me.\u201d I was on my <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em> tour, so I was like, \u201cOh, I for sure want to do this\u201d \u2014 I\u2019m such a fan of both Mark and Greta, and to get to work with them in this capacity would be incredible \u2014 but I was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s the deadline? And am I going to be able to do this while I\u2019m still on the road?\u201d Mark and Greta were so excited that I was up for it, and we just made it work. I flew to New York and we spent so much time crafting this bespoke dance blowout party banger, essentially, which was just such a different experience from any of the other experiences that I\u2019d had writing music for myself. Because when I write music for myself, I have such a personal vision in mind. Here, I was writing a story about Barbie, about her character. It was interesting to work to an assignment to write a song about what in the film is Barbie\u2019s best day ever \u2014 and then she starts having, as the day goes on, thoughts of death, and from that point on everything kind of goes upside down and she has this existential crisis and has to go into reality and discover the patriarchy. There\u2019s a lot that happens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>It sets it all up\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    It sets it all up. And it was like, \u201cHow do I create a song that really does that moment justice?\u201d Especially with all the cast members in it, all the Barbies dancing in there! And how do I have this underlying story alongside it? It\u2019s like, \u201cYes, it\u2019s a big disco moment in the film, but lyrically, although it\u2019s got to be fun, I have to be able to tell Barbie\u2019s story in this way, and how are we going to do this?\u201d I wrote it with Andrew Wyatt and Mark Ronson and Caroline Ailin, and it felt like a very 360 moment on how we all got together in the first place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Are you thinking, as you\u2019re working on a song like that, \u201cYes, it\u2019s for a movie, but it also needs to be able to stand on its own at a club? In other words, that the lyrics have to mean multiple things? And would you say it\u2019s harder than writing a song that\u2019s not for a movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Well, I think when you\u2019re writing from personal experiences, you are putting yourself out there in a very vulnerable position. What was interesting here with <em>Barbie<\/em> is, although we were tailoring the song, pretty much like a score, to the visuals to make it really fit in, the song also stands alone. When the song was finished, what I realized is how much I relate to Barbie, to \u201cDance the Night,\u201d to the idea of resilience through the adversity of whatever life throws at you, and being able to just carry on and, I don\u2019t know, show a completely another side of me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Also, \u201cDance the Night,\u201d to me, felt like my farewell to <em>Future Nostalgia<\/em>. When I think back to the time when people told me I couldn\u2019t dance or I had no stage presence and I decided to instead make them <em>all<\/em> dance with the music I was making, that\u2019s what \u201cDance the Night\u201d represents to me, that complete shift in my life where I was able to find myself again and really feel like I can stand through anything as long as I have passion and a dream and a want to create something.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>You also play a part in this movie. Are you interested in doing more acting moving forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Maybe. I had a lot of fun doing the cameo for <em>Barbie<\/em>. Just to be on set and feel the energy of all the cast and crew members \u2014 everyone was so passionate and so generous with themselves in every aspect of wanting to make this the best thing that they\u2019d ever made. You can really feel that dedication. Like I said, when I make a song, I hope people can feel the energy of how I felt when I made this record. The same thing goes for the way that this film was made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Grammy noms came out last week. How did you learn that \u201cDance the Night\u201d had been recognized?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    I got a text from a friend who was like, \u201cDid you know that you just got nominated for two Grammys for \u2018Dance the Night?&#8217;\u201d And I was already on such a high because I had just released my new single \u201cHoudini\u201d and that was just absolutely flying, and then I get this <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>! I was just absolutely in a massive whirlwind. I couldn\u2019t believe what I was hearing. I was just so happy to be nominated, especially for a song that means so much to me. I just feel like it\u2019s such a big part of me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>\u201cHoudini\u201d is the lead single from your next album, which is coming in 2024. You have said this one is going to be more personal than the others\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    The reason why it\u2019s personal is with every experience, with every moment that I\u2019ve spent in the studio, I\u2019ve learned to just open up more and give more of myself and not be afraid of that aspect of my vulnerability. And also just with every record, I\u2019ve been learning more about myself and wanting it to be more organic in different ways, to grow sonically and change it up. This one\u2019s a lot more psychedelic in its production, and I\u2019m just very excited because it feels like a new step for me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <strong>Lastly, can a song change the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Can a song change the world? That\u2019s interesting. I think music gives people the feeling that you can really imagine a world with peace. It gives you that space to, I don\u2019t know, dive into another world that gives you a lot of comfort and clarity, even when things in the world aren\u2019t going so well. It\u2019s a safe space. So whether or not it can change the world, I don\u2019t know. But for me, it gives me comfort and it makes me feel very much at home, wherever I am.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    <em>Transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/awards-chatter-podcast-dua-lipa-barbie-1235675696\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dua Lipa, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s Awards Chatter podcast, is a three-time Grammy-winning singer\/songwriter who is one of the biggest pop stars in the world. A Brit who has been described by The New York Times as \u201ca powerhouse young artist,\u201d by Vanity Fair as a \u201cbona fide superstar\u201d and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":598899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Awards-Chatter-Podcast-Dua-Lipa-Headshot-Getty-H-2023.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[139601,138376,77020,147243,73885,147244,85249,39579],"class_list":["post-598898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-awards-chatter","tag-awards-chatter-podcast","tag-barbie","tag-dance-the-night","tag-dua-lipa","tag-future-nostalgia","tag-houdini","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}