New Ruler: Dua Lipa Is Conquering Pop

On pop’s proverbial race track, Dua Lipa is lapping the competition. And if her earlier singles were the fuel,  “New Rules” was her nitrous boost. The radio phenomenon that went “a bit mental” launched her into the  public eye with a musical cease and desist letter to cloying exes everywhere, underwritten by girl power and sealed with a kiss (mwah). It was the Billboard Hot 100 eruption she needed to finally break America—a feat the British singer had been trying to accomplish since the beginning of her professional career in  2015 with catchy songs like “Be the One” and “Hotter Than Hell.” With anticipation for her sophomore album at a fever pitch, Dua Lipa is shifting into high gear. There is no one working harder or moving faster than this tireless 22-year-old.

Polishing off the final leg of Bruno Mars’ 24k Magic tour in Australia as the opening act, Lipa played to 14,000 rapturous fans—the same ones who usually skip out on openers to grab a pint or a hot dog. They not only stuck around, they also sang, bawled, and screeched the lyrics back to her. “That never happens,” she emphasizes in her low register over the phone from Melbourne. “I feel really spoiled.” 

It makes sense: Several of her tracks vaulted over borders in Europe long before she landed in the U.S. with “New Rules.” She has traveled to and played in as many markets as that single blew up in—a fact she is proud of. It’s the kind of strategy Justin Bieber employed in his “Baby” days: making pit stops at as many local radio stations and small town stoops as it took to bend ears in his direction. However, when I suggest that Lipa has applied these tactics to similarly astounding effect, she retorts, “No way! I don’t think I had any idea what I was doing. All I thought was, The more I put out, every other song will get a bit more momentum because 10 people listen to that first song, maybe 20 people will listen to the next one. Maybe they’ll tell their friends…”

They did tell their friends, resulting in a song you could just as easily hear blasting over speakers in Bahrain as you could pumping out of car windows on the BQE. In the music industry, it’s rare for a name as foreign as Dua Lipa’s to go from pop parvenu to international sensation in a matter of months. She is the embodiment of overnight celebrity — and with all of the new fans and chart success came the succubi, the gossip columnists, and the trolls. “You never expect a song to do [what ‘New Rules’ did] and you’re never really prepared for it,” she says. “Everybody’s so lovely and supportive, but you’re also very open to judgment. That’s one of the sacrifices that you put up with doing this as a job. You get lots of people saying not so nice things. I don’t know if it was just this whole shift in the song doing well — all of a sudden you have a lot more eyeballs on you and then people just don’t like you for the sake of not liking you.” 

“Dua is so much fun to work with,” discloses MNEK. “She’s a great writer, really open, full of ideas, song titles, and concepts. Jamaica was rainier than we all anticipated, but we had a lot of laughs and it was very productive. It’s definitely a new vibe for her, but it’s early stages—all subject to change.” Though she has hardly any time to glance in the rearview mirror in between touring, jetting to Jamaica, and possibly catching a wink with her makeup still on, she’s surprisingly not worried about burning out. “During the day, I’m like, God I’m so exhausted today. Then I go on stage, and I’m like, That show was so amazing! And I just jump back onto cloud nine. All the adrenaline hits and I’m seeing the finish line for this album and I’m already working on the next.” With that goal in her sights, Dua Lipa, the indefatigable pop star, is putting the pedal to the metal.