Welcome to the new episode of the Billboard.com Pop Shop Podcast, Billboard’s weekly audio breakdown of the Billboard charts, hottest music news and year’s biggest musical events. Casual pop fans and chart junkies can hear Billboard co-director of charts Keith Caulfield and Billboard.com senior editor Katie Atkinson every Tuesday on the Pop Shop Podcast, which can be streamed on Billboard.com or downloaded in iTunes (click here to listen to the previous Tuesday’s edition of the show on Billboard.com).
On the latest show, we welcome rising star Dua Lipa! Over the past year, the singer and songwriter has been making waves in Europe and at home in England, where she’s scored five top 40 hits on the Official U.K. Singles Chart, including the top 10 smash “No Lie,” with Sean Paul. In America, she notched her first Billboard Hot 100 hit with “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)” and followed it up with “Scared to Be Lonely,” her collaboration with Martin Garrix. The latter tune debuts on the Pop Songs airplay chart this week (chart dated March 11).
Regarding the past year or so, Lipa says “It’s been an absolute whirlwind. From doing festivals to doing my own European tour to getting to work with people like Sean Paul and Martin Garrix and releasing my own music — it’s just been mental. Mental.”
Lipa’s self-titled debut studio album is due in June, and she says there will be “a lot of diversity” represented on the set; her influences range from Sia, P!nk and Destiny’s Child to 50 Cent and J. Cole). She also hints at some possible collaborations that “may or may not” appear on the album (more on that in the interview!).
Before she drops her album, though, she’ll be on her first headlining North American tour, which launched on Feb. 24 in Chicago and will run through March, wrapping up in San Francisco on March 17. After that, she’ll tour with Off Bloom in Europe in April, and then in June, she’ll play both the Bonnaroo Music Festival and the Governors Ball Music Festival.
Lipa also reflects on her “terrifying” debut live performance (a record label showcase in Berlin), how modeling inspired her music, and her formative years in Kosovo where she became a hip-hop fan (her first concert? Method Man and Redman!).
Plus, the Pop Shop team dives into a discussion of the Academy Awards, Lorde’s upcoming new music and chart chat about Future’s anticipated back-to-back No. 1 debuts on the Billboard 200 albums chart, The Chainsmokers and Coldplay’s new single, and the chances of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s “City of Stars” hitting the Hot 100.
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