Dua Lipa
The Billboard Music Awards sadly missed out on awarding an up-and-coming singer who is making her mark all over the world. 22-year-old Dua Lipa performed her smash hit New Rules for the screaming crowd at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas in May. The English pop star rocked a purple silk robe as she and her fleet of dancers performed a really fun dance routine which centred around a giant pink flamingo. Though the singer did not take any awards home, she made a mark with her ever-growing fans.
Dua Lipa was born on 22 August 1995 in London to Albanian parents from Kosovo who had left Pristina in the early 1990s. Her first name means ‘love’ in Albanian, and she has never ever thought of changing her real name for a stage name. She attended Sylvia Young Theatre School (a school that was also attended by singers Amy Winehouse and Rita Ora) before moving to Kosovo with her parents in 2008 when the country declared its independence from Serbia. Dua Lipa grew up listening to her father Dukagjin Lipa, a very distinguished singer. Her parents listened to a lot of David Bowie, Bob Dylan, The Stereophonics, Sting, The Police and Radiohead. Being a new generation kid, born in the digital era, she had access to music videos and listened to music by her favourite artistes of the 90’s like Pink, Christina Aguliera and Nelly Furtado among many others.
At the age of 14, she began posting covers of her favourite songs on YouTube. A year later she moved to London with aspirations of becoming a singer, but with little success. Her first job was waiting at tables in a restaurant. With her good looks, at the age of just 16, she began working as a model to keep herself going. But she continued making a few songs at the same time. Her first demos were released in 2012, attracting the attention of the management team of Lana Del Rey who signed her and linked her up with producers like Emile Haynie who has worked with Bruno Mars.
Through a few contacts, Dua Lipa started doing work for the recording company Warner Bros and with their support, she released her first single New Love in 2015. Dua Lipa combines genres such as indie pop, pop, dream pop and sinty pop in her music. Her creativity was developed in the famous Youth Theatre group which she joined to pursue her career in music.
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Verus Ferreira is a music journalist for over three decades. He is the author of The Great Music Quiz Book and The Great Rock Music Quiz Book and the founder of Musicunplugged.in