INTERVIEW: 3 Facts You Need To Know About Dua Lipa
By Nicole Mastrogiannis
September 6, 2016
If you're looking for awesome, unique new music to listen to, look no further than Dua Lipa. The 21-year-old singer/songwriter from London, England has been working on her debut, self-titled album, which is expected to be released in February 10th, 2017 via Warner Bros. Records. We recently caught up with Dua and got to know all about her when she stopped by iHeartRadio HQ in New York City for an exclusive performance of her new single "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" and exclusive interview.
Dua comes from a musical family -- her father, Dukagjin Lipa, is a Kosovar Albanian rock singer. And at just 14 years old, she began posting covers of pop songs on YouTube with music from Nelly Furtado and Christina Aguilera. Fast forward seven years later, and Lipa has released several singles including "Be The One," which hit the top 10 charts in Australia, Austria, and Belgium, along with her previous single before "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" called "Hotter Than Hell." She also has quite a large following on social media with over 322k Instagram followers and over 272k likes on her Facebook page. Combine that success and popularity with her upcoming debut full length album and you have a great recipe to create the next big pop star.
Dua on writing her new single "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)"
"'Blow your mind' I wrote that in LA. I wrote it when I felt like I was coming towards the end of writing for the album, and I felt like I needed some more, like, fun stuff. But I still wanted to keep the whole dark pop theme that was still kind of running through the rest of my songs, and it was kind of an ode to people that just don't really give a f***, and that don't want to change for anyone, and just are proud to be who they are."
Get to know more about Dua Lipa with these three facts below:
1. Her music is pop, but has a hip hop influence.
"I'd tell them it was pop, but it was hip hop influenced. Because I feel like those are the two genres that I identify with the most."
2. She mainly writes her own songs.
"I mainly write my own songs. I work with other people as well. It's fun. I wrote this one song called 'Thinking About You,' very early on when I first started writing for the album. And it was just like piano super chilled out, and I decided to never put production on it just because it still has the same kind of emotion and feeling. And when I perform it I still know how I felt when I wrote it, and you know how I felt when I sang it for the first time. I still have that same recurring feeling. So, it's different. Once they have production, then I just want to like dance around. The second it's just more stripped back."
3. She's releasing her debut album in early 2017.
"I'm really excited for people to hear 'Blow your mind.' I think it's definitely the poppier song that I've got on the album. There's also another song on the album called 'Room for two,' which is more of the darker side to the pop. There is a lot of juxtaposition going on in the album, and I feel like when you hear those two songs, you kind of get an idea of what else is on the album."
Photos: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio