Long before she released her self-titled debut album, Dua Lipa began touring back in January 2016. Fast-forward nearly three years, and, by her math, the pop star has played 245 concerts and festival sets since then, with only one date remaining on her 2018 schedule.
But she’s definitely not complaining. The success of her album — and especially its record-breaking single “New Rules,” which has the longest run ever on Billboard‘s Pop Songs radio airplay chart, thanks to its 45 weeks on the tally — has allowed her to “go around the world at least three times, doing what I love and performing,” she tells Billboard‘s Pop Shop Podcast.
“When you’re so far away from home, which is London for me, to hear your song just on the radio when you’re in the middle of Asia, it always takes you by surprise,” she says of the inescapable hit.
She’s also at the center of some considerable 2019 Grammys buzz. When we caught up with Lipa backstage at the Grammy Museum on Sept. 28, where she performed and sat down for a Q&A at the museum’s Clive Davis Theater, she mostly expressed excitement about the opportunity to be among her fellow female artists in the 2019 nominations. “It’s exciting to be a British artist and to get recognition all over the world and especially in America and to find myself here in the Grammy Museum, which is all a bit surreal,” she says. “I would be honored to be nominated, but also to be part of the representation of women more so in the nominations and to be a part of the change and to see kinda maybe this year and years moving forward more females being given the opportunity to really shine through.”
In addition to her own music, Dua Lipa has been featured on a pair of massive dance songs over the past few months, starting with Calvin Harris’ “One Kiss” in the spring and continuing with last month’s “Electricity” from Silk City (aka superproducers Diplo and Mark Ronson). Lipa takes center stage in the (literally) steamy “Electricity” video, set in a hot New York City loft during the Northeast blackout of 2003, where she dances across the room without abandon wearing next to nothing. “It was probably the most confident I’ve ever felt,” she says of the video. “It was one of those where I was in a room of so many people, and for once, I didn’t care what I looked like or what I was doing or how I was dancing. I was just kind of moving and going crazy and feeling it just for what it was, it was just really refreshing to be able to do that. There were some parts which was choreographed, but all the jumping and the dancing, everybody was like, ‘Just go for it, just do whatever you want,’ and I think that feeling of not holding back was really important for me to get to experience that.”
While music from Dua Lipa’s debut is still making noise at radio, she’s already thinking about album No. 2. “I’ve been writing quite a bit, and I feel really good about it,” she says. “It feels like a good step into new territory. It’s still pop, because that’s what I love and I find my home there, but it’s different sounds and has some like nostalgic feels and a bit experimental.”
Also on the show, Keith & Katie talk about chart moves for Lil Wayne, Cher and Paul McCartney, plus, we chat all about Taylor Swift’s headline-making weekend.
The Billboard Pop Shop Podcast is your one-stop shop for all things pop on Billboard‘s weekly charts. You can always count on a lively discussion about the latest pop news, fun chart stats and stories, new music, and guest interviews with music stars and folks from the world of pop. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard‘s senior director of charts Keith Caulfield and deputy editor, digital Katie Atkinson every week on the podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast provider. (Click here to listen to the previous Tuesday’s edition of the show on Billboard.com.)
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