Revisit Dua Lipa’s 2020 Attitude cover interview – as ‘Training Season’ singer gears up for Wembley Stadium

The forecast is foggy on the day of my face-to-face chat with Dua Lipa. No matter how much I fiddle with the positioning of my spectacles over my mask, the lenses are engulfed by a thick mist — curse my extra-strength, plastic-penetrating nostril breath!

At various points, the interview is legitimately a blur — but Britain’s biggest pop star is sympathetic. “That is a thing, right, when I put sunglasses on with my mask, they fog up,” she sighs, reassuringly adding: “Well, you look really cute.” Turns out one of the few things the coronavirus hasn’t entirely diminished is my specs appeal.

Of course, a flickering light in this year’s COVID-19-cloaked darkness was Dua’s superlative second album, Future Nostalgia, a pop orgasm of a record that expertly tickled the all-important G-spot: the eardrums of gay men across the land, keeping us coming back for more. And more. And, yes, yes, yes, more. (Physical is pure genius, just saying.)

The singer brought forward the release to the beginning of lockdown following a leak, and admits she was hesitant to do so. “It could have gone one of two ways; there are lots of people suffering and it could be something they don’t want to hear, or it could be really helpful at a time like this. I created it to get away from outside pressures, to make something fun and exciting and that just felt good, [and] I was, like, maybe it is the perfect time to put it out.”

Rocketing to number one in the UK music charts in April, Dua’s sophomore offering confirmed the ascension of a global superstar. “I knew when I was making it that I had something that I was really proud of, and in that sense, it felt special to me because I had unlocked this newfound confidence within myself. I felt so much more confident in being in the studio and claiming my space,” Dua recalls. “It is my baby.”

Dua adds: “I had pressure to begin with, of people — especially after the Grammys — being like, ‘Right, well, now you’ve really got to pull your socks up and show us what you’ve got.’ In my head, I was like, ‘OK, fuck… I really have to prove that I deserve to be here.’”

Last year, Dua received two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Dance Recording. In 2018, she became the first female artist to pick up five nominations at the Brit Awards, going on to win the British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo Artist gongs. Her 2017 self-titled debut album is also the most-streamed by a female artist in Spotify history. Impressive stuff.

Despite these accolades, for a long time the chart-topper felt she had to repeatedly make her case for her seat at the table. “That’s just being a woman in the industry. A lot of people see it, particularly in pop music, that you’re manufactured or whatever, so you have this underlying pressure or anxiety to constantly prove [yourself] to people, especially when you write your own lyrics,” she explains.

“While I was creating my first record, when I would go into studio sessions, I felt like I needed to prove to the people I was going in the room with that I could write and that I do this myself and that I am an artist, [that] I’m not just going to sit there in the room and wait for somebody to write a song for me. You have to work a little bit harder to be taken seriously.”

Sat on a sofa in a studio in north London, wearing a hoodie and corduroy trousers — proving that, yes, corduroy is fucking cool — Dua revisits the turbo-charged turning point of her career: her smash-hit New Rules and that video, which has clocked up over 2.2 billion views on YouTube.

The dynamite song was the sixth single from her first album, and almost overnight it ignited her crackling pop potential into a glorious blaze. “I was always building momentum in some way, even if it was just a little bit, whether that was the shows I was performing in getting bigger, going back to the same city and seeing the same faces, but then also new people — all those things are mini victories that I was going in the right direction, whatever way that was,” Dua notes.

“The music video for New Rules was something that completely took off. Did I know that was going to happen? Absolutely not. I’m so grateful for that song because it opened so many doors for me, especially Stateside. If it wasn’t for New Rules, I’d probably still be trying. I feel like everything happened in the right way… it’s meant to be.”

That sentiment of “meant to be” speaks to a steely determination that Dua seems to have in droves. Born in London to Kosovar Albanian parents, who fled war-torn Kosovo in 1992, the family returned to Kosovo’s capital Pristina when Dua was 11 years old. She moved back to the UK four years later to pursue music.

“It’s that thing of being the ‘new girl’, you constantly have to try to make friends, when everybody’s already created their groups. That was a bit hard in Kosovo… I thought that when I went there, people would find my name ‘normal’ [but] it wasn’t common there, either, so I was the Albanian girl with the English accent… but it was incredible to learn about my culture, my roots and my history,” she says.

“While I was in Kosovo, I realised how much I wanted to do music. I always loved to sing and perform, but I knew the only way I could get what I wanted was to be in a place where everything was happening and that, for me, was London. I was fortunate that my parents had moved to London during the war and that I had the opportunity to come back and make my dream come true.”

Many parents wouldn’t be so trusting of their teenage offspring. “Them allowing me to do that brought us even closer… It made our bond stronger. When I was away, whatever was happening, the first people I’d call were my best friends: my parents.”

That said, Dua didn’t jump at a recent opportunity to shack up with her mother and father, namely Anesa and Dukagjin. “I thought I was going to have to be in lockdown with my parents because I had a flood in my apartment. They were, like, ‘You should stay here,’ and I was, like, ‘Yeah… I don’t know how long this is going to last, I’m going to get an Airbnb for now.’ They’re the best, but I don’t think being under one roof, non-stop, is the vibe — I haven’t lived with them since I was 15!”

Earlier this summer, the hitmaker received the royal seal of approval from the queen of pop herself, Madonna. The pair collaborated on a star-studded version of Dua’s track Levitating (alongside Missy Elliott and DJ Blessed Madonna) that appeared on the remix album Club Future Nostalgia. Further proof that Dua’s current reign now really is Hotter Than Hell…

“I said to my manager, ‘I know this is super-crazy… do you think we could reach out and see if Madonna’s into it?’ He was, like, ‘The worst they can say is, no.’ All right, fuck it, let’s see. Madonna got back to us and she was into the idea, she loved it — and then she called me on the phone,” Dua exclaims.

“I was nervous, but she was really nice. We had a 20-minute conversation and we spoke about the song, we spoke about men, we spoke about everything that was happening in the world; the Black Lives Matter protests were happening in London, I’d just gone to one, and she was going the next day. You know, there was a lot to talk about, but she was fun and bubbly, everything you could imagine her [to be].”

What did Madonna have to say about men? “We were talking about time zones and being away from — or rather, being away from her other half. I didn’t have that problem, I was kind of in lockdown with my boyfriend, so I was being sympathetic.”

Dua has also set up a collab with another notable ‘M’ — Miley Cyrus, who previously performed at Dua’s Sunny Hill music festival in Kosovo, which is named after her folks’ hometown. “We started becoming really close because we were constantly texting and talking, and it just happened… it’s the perfect mix of both of us: it’s got a lot of attitude, and it’s playful, sexy and cute. We had a blast doing it and shooting the video.”

Expect a whole lotta mullet, too, because Miley is giving us glam rock-meets-Tiger King. “I’m obsessed with it,” Dua laughs. “I had the bleached hair for a bit and my ends started breaking off and I was, like, ‘This is a traumatic experience.’ We [Miley and I] had a full heart-to-heart about how my bleached ends are just not doing it. She said, ‘Babes, you’re going to end up with a mullet like this.’ I was like, ‘But you make it look really cute, if I had a mullet, it just wouldn’t work.’”

Like Madge and Miley, the 25-year-old has earned her rainbow stripes as a gay icon. “It’s really hard to refer to myself as that,” she begins, modestly. “But I’m trying to channel that energy.”

To help Dua channel that very energy, I casually mentions that I have has a travel-sized douche in my bag (yes, before you ask, I am in an established relationship). “You what?!” she squeals, clapping her hands. “I’m obsessed with you.”

Dua continues: “I’m grateful to have such an incredible community filled with so much love, so much enthusiasm, so much creativity… you know [how] you go, ‘sugar and spice makes everything nice?’ That’s what the gay community has, everything nice: the sass, the attitude, the fun, the vocabulary… it’s so tasty!”

From speaking out after fans waving rainbow flags were forcibly removed from her show in Shanghai in 2018, to headlining Mardi Gras in Sydney in February — her final gig before Miss Rona pulled the plug on live performances, no less — Dua has always felt an affinity with her LGBTQ fans.

“I have a massive group of friends and [members of] my team who are part of the LGBTQ community, who have inspired me so much and taught me so much. They’re all my role models in life,” Dua stresses. “It’s entirely a right to be able to love who you want, not just because I have friends in the LGBTQ community, but because we’re all human and we deserve it. It’s something that I feel very connected to and will continue to fight for.”

Our conversation turns to the power of pop — trust, Britney’s Stronger has scooped me from the gutter, literally and figuratively, on numerous occasions — and how Dua’s music may have helped LGBTQ people during lockdown, unable to seek out their usual safe spaces, trapped, perhaps, in dangerous environments. The numbers seeking suicide-prevention support rose significantly in this period.

“That is something that I can’t quite…” she pauses. “It really breaks my heart. It’s hard to put into words how that makes me feel, somebody not being able to continue with their life because of what’s going on around them. That makes it difficult to digest. I can only imagine what that must feel like.

“To be able to use my platform to spread awareness, show support, talk about it, to make people feel seen, heard and safe, [to] communicate with charities and try to do my part as much as I can… I see that as my duty.”

Staying on the subject of mental health, and how she looks after her own, Dua points to the strength of the friendships she forged as a teen. “When I moved back to London and went to school in Parliament Hill, in Gospel Oak, the first two girls that came up to me when I was new, Ella and Sarah, they’re my best friends. I never let them go, they’re my sisters. When my parents were in Kosovo, I would spend Christmas at theirs — they’ve become my family,” she smiles.

“If I wasn’t doing what I was doing, those people would still be around. That does make a massive difference because, I guess, your friendships and the people around you aren’t solely based on what you do as a job. That’s quite grounding.”

Currently dating American model Anwar Hadid, 21 — brother of Gigi and Bella — Dua dispenses her ‘rules’ for having a relationship in the glare of the public eye. “For me and Anwar, we’re actually really, really private, but we’ll post the occasional picture that we like,” she says. “It’s fun to share little moments when you want to, but I think anything that’s an overshare, too much of a relationship or whatever, is never good or healthy.”

“You’ll only know how much I want to tell you,” she maintains.

It is a tale as old as time (no, not Beauty & the Beast) that as soon as you become famous, a proverbial target is slapped on your back, and you become fair game for certain publications. Naturally, Dua has a few thoughts on the matter. “A lot of the time I try and not engage with it [stories in the press], true or untrue. I just think it causes me so much — if it’s something that’s detrimental to me and I know for a fact it’s untrue, I will stand my ground and speak up about it. But it’s also just one of those things that you just have to learn to live with,” she shrugs.

“The more you focus on it, the more it becomes a stress in your life. So, I’m, like, it is what it is, move on, keep going, let’s do the things that make me happy and keep that away… unless it’s something that I need to get up and fight for.”

In line with that, I wonder if Dua has noticed any meaningful change in the wake of the #BeKind movement — which was sparked after the tragic death of Caroline Flack. “I definitely do want to say that some people are thinking about it a little bit more before they say things. I think people are trying to be more accepting and understanding, but at the same time, the internet is a [weird] place, because when you can hide behind a screen and you can say whatever you want, you know, what’s happening now, being funny is the greatest currency, even if it’s at the expense of somebody else,” she reflects.

“That tends to happen a lot with social media. Being funny and getting ‘likes’ and retweets seems to be more important than actually caring about who is going to be on the other side of it and how they feel… There should be a communal understanding that people make mistakes, and we should learn from each other’s mistakes and we should try to teach each other. I think there is so much judgement and meanness… cancel culture is so dangerous and toxic.”

Dua opens up about the trolling she has faced, and the anxiety it triggered. “I experienced a shit tonne at the end of my first record, and it was definitely something that gave me anxiety and made me upset and made me feel like I wasn’t good enough and made me feel like, maybe I’m not meant to be here and on the stage,” she reveals.

“Even after the Grammys, some people were like, ‘Well, she doesn’t deserve it,’ blah blah… There were so many things, especially when you start out, like a video of me dancing and they’re like, ‘Ah well, she has no stage presence’ — but they’d never been to one of my shows, they’d never seen me perform live. They would take one small snippet and run with it and it would become a whole thing.

“For a short period of time, it messed with my mental health. You know, I’d go out on stage and if somebody was filming me, in my head, I wasn’t, like, ‘Oh, they’re filming me because they want to keep it.’ I was, like, ‘They’re going to film it so they can laugh at me or something.’”

She adds: “Yeah, it was a tough time, but I’m also so grateful for that experience because I became so much stronger. I became so much more confident after that. Now I know what I’m good at; I know how to be good at what I do; [and] I know how much work it takes to be good at what I do.”

I am politely informed by her publicist that I have time for one more question — when I still have a couple left on my list. So, I start speaking at the same breakneck speed as those radio advert dudes who read out the pesky terms and conditions.

“You’re fine — and breathe,” Dua grins.

Delving into my favourite track from Future Nostalgia, the powerful closer Boys Will Be Boys, I ask Dua if she’s come up against much misogyny in the industry. “Absolutely,” she answers, affirmatively. “You’re on a music video and the director goes, ‘I definitely think you need to wear a skirt’ — because someone wants to see, you know, UK’s pop star in a cute outfit. I’m like, ‘Well, I’m going to wear trousers because it’s fucking freezing.’ I know how to stand my ground and hold it down.

“There are all these little things, but I think that’s maybe where we’re going wrong. For so long we’re so used to pushing it away and saying something to just turn it off and be, like, this isn’t a big deal. I’ve always been someone to check [a person] straight away. If someone’s saying something [that I don’t agree with], ‘Well, I’m not going to do that, I’m going to do this.’ It creates maybe a weird energy, but it’s something that has to be said and addressed. I’m quite good at that.”

After being forced to postpone her tour in January and February, Dua is looking forward to calling the shots in an online extravaganza ingeniously titled Studio 2054, which will be beamed onto our screens later this month (November).

“This gives me an opportunity to put on a live show, but to do something that I’d never be able to do on tour,” she teases. “It’s like creating a movie, a live music video that you guys can follow through — sets and dancers and storylines and guest performers.”

At the time of writing, Dua cannot confirm the guest stars, so I suggest she give me a couple of clues in the vein of the popular children’s game, Guess Who? Like, this person just dyed their hair pink, for instance.

Alas, Dua isn’t biting. “Guess you can’t play Guess Who?,” she quips.

The details may be foggy — like my glasses — but it’s hardly a Lipa faith to say that it’ll be one hell of a show.

Dua will perform at Wembley Stadium on 20 and 21 June 2025; which Attitude is attending with Priority from O2. For more information about Priority from O2, from 48-hour ticket pre-sale member perks, click here.