2017 No. 1s: How Dua Lipa's Dancefloor Hits Created Crossover Success

Kirdis Postelle, senior vp marketing, Warner Bros. Records: I remember hearing “Blow Your Mind” and thinking, “This is one of the best songs I’ve heard this year.” The hook, the sassiness of the song, that kiss [sound] in there.

Dua Lipa: A lot of [my] songs are songs to dance to, but if you really listen to the lyric, you can cry to them, too. I quite often refer to my music as “dance-crying.”

Ben Mawson: While we didn't have a global smash before, we had a few songs with over 100 million streams each on Spotify. We were creating a base from which to have the big hit we’re now having [“New Rules”].

Postelle: The U.S. was sort of out of step with the rest of the world. We tried to get in step with everybody else on “New Rules.”

Lipa: I feel like releasing music the way that I have has helped me get to where I am. It’s a lot harder for a new artist to break through, and it has been really cool to see it grow the way that it has, by releasing lots of songs and videos.

This article originally appeared in the Dec. 30 issue of Billboard.