Pop star Dua Lipa explains the meaning behind the title of her newly released album 'Radical Optimism,' the cover art, talks about why she decided to choose "Houdini" and "Training Season" as her first two singles, how British bands like Oasis and Massive Attack influenced the sound for this album, how she feels about headlining the legendary Glastonbury festival, who her favorite Spice Girl is and more!
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00:00No one wanted to let me be Baby Spice because I wasn't blonde.
00:02Oh.
00:03That was like, it was like a playground hierarchy, I guess.
00:07It was like, all right, you gotta be posh.
00:09Well, hopefully one day you get to live your Baby Spice life.
00:11Maybe one day, one Halloween, I get to be Baby Spice.
00:17We have to talk about this album.
00:19Okay, May 3rd, Radical Optimism.
00:22Your third album.
00:23How is this new era of Dua Lipa feeling?
00:25It feels good.
00:26I mean, it feels, for lack of a better word, radically optimistic.
00:36With every experience, I feel like I'm growing, I'm learning.
00:40It's just been, it's been incredible.
00:42And what do you feel like sets this era most apart from the other two?
00:47I think sonically, it's vastly different.
00:50I feel like there's also songs that are, you know,
00:55more personal in a way that maybe people haven't heard from me before.
01:03But then the juxtaposition, the feeling of optimism,
01:06that's always something that's run through my music.
01:08It's something that I really firmly believe in.
01:10I believe that I manifest a lot of the words that I write or that I sing
01:16because they almost become like a mantra.
01:17I sing them every night.
01:19I perform them in front of crowds.
01:20People sing them as well.
01:21So I want there to be a sense of optimism,
01:24a sense of light at the end of the tunnel.
01:27I think that's the most important thing.
01:28I think, you know, rolling with the punches is just something we got to do.
01:33And you talk about sort of like, you know, competing from a personal place.
01:37Like, how do you approach the songwriting process?
01:39Do you normally think like, this is how I feel in the moment,
01:41or you kind of take from all experiences?
01:43Well, I guess it's a bit of like the writer's dilemma in the moment
01:48where for me, for a long period of time, I was like,
01:51okay, what do I keep for myself?
01:52What do I put out there?
01:53How do I talk about my stories
01:55while also not putting my whole personal life on blast?
01:58You know, it's quite a vulnerable position to put yourself in.
02:02Whereas for this record, I just, I felt so free in telling my stories
02:07and talking about my experiences.
02:09And I think that also just came as my confidence as a songwriter.
02:13And I don't know, knowing what is asked of me
02:17and knowing what this job requires, you know, in so many ways.
02:21And so I think in that sense, I feel much more confident overall.
02:32And you've said the title has sat with you for a while, like over a year.
02:35So what is it about this title that stuck out to you?
02:38I think just throughout, even throughout my last album
02:42and my last tour and the past couple of years,
02:45it's like there have been so many moments
02:46where things haven't worked out the way that I thought that they would.
02:49And there have been moments where I've been let down.
02:51There have been moments where I thought,
02:52okay, how am I going to continue after what has just happened?
02:56I think what I've just come to realize is you have to persist.
02:59You have to push through that.
03:00If you think it's the end, it's not.
03:02Because you're going to look back and you're going to be like,
03:04wow, I've grown so much from that experience
03:06or that specific experience taught me so much.
03:09Whether it's a heartbreak or if it's like the people that you thought
03:14were the ones that you knew so well aren't actually who they made out to be.
03:17It's like all of those are lessons in life.
03:20And you can't kind of wallow in the sadness of like,
03:24I can't believe I've been tricked or this has happened or whatever.
03:27You're just like, okay, I want to just move on and grow.
03:30And every experience is a lesson.
03:33You apply that radical optimism right back to your life.
03:35One thousand percent. It's so important.
03:37And even the cover is kind of a juxtaposition, right?
03:39You're in this calm water, the shark.
03:41So tell me the inspiration behind the cover art.
03:43Well, the inspiration behind the cover is exactly the title.
03:46It's this idea of being in and around, you know,
03:49I mean, it's peaceful and it's calm, the image,
03:52but there's a shark, which in every other instance,
03:56I probably would be freaking out.
03:58But in this moment, I've remained really like poised and calm
04:02and not afraid of the surrounding that I'm in.
04:05Throughout the whole record, there's this idea of chaos happening around
04:09and me trying to push through it in a way that feels authentic and honest to me.
04:16This is obviously an overly dramatic way to explain that,
04:21but I feel like it says radical optimism to me in the clearest sense
04:27of being in deep waters and kind of finding or grounding yourself in that moment.
04:32I think you do the most amount of growing outside of your comfort zone.
04:38And that's what this says to me.
04:39And you've also said that the album was kind of inspired by 90s Britpop.
04:43So tell me about that inspiration.
04:45I grew up listening to so many different artists,
04:49and I think a lot of that is down to the music my parents listened to,
04:52the music I listened to on the radio,
04:54the music I listened to on my way to school, you know, whatever it was.
04:57And that's like Oasis and Portishead and Massive Attack and Primal Scream.
05:03And there's just so many different artists.
05:05And I don't know, I have to thank my parents and my really eclectic
05:09knowledge of different types of music,
05:11because they've influenced me throughout my career in different ways.
05:14And also being on tour for a whole year,
05:16I fell in love more with the songs and how they were performed live by the end of it,
05:22rather than how they were in the studio version.
05:24And so I wanted in the record to make this album more organic.
05:28And I felt like there's such a freedom
05:30and there's so much experimenting in that world of Britpop.
05:35And psychedelic trip-hop kind of thing that I was really inspired by.
05:41And I wanted to try to do it in my own way,
05:44obviously infused with pop, like it's still a pop record in every sense of the word,
05:49but experimenting with different sounds.
05:51Well, you gave me a lot of research.
05:53I'm going to go look up all those artists.
05:54Okay, cool.
05:55But I was thinking about Spice Girls.
05:57My brain goes there when I think of British pop.
05:59What Spice Girl were you growing up?
06:00Okay, so I always wanted to be Baby Spice.
06:02Really?
06:03Yeah, but...
06:03That's shocking, actually.
06:04Yeah, but no one wanted to let me be Baby Spice because I wasn't blonde.
06:08That was like a playground hierarchy, I guess.
06:12It was like, all right, you got to be posh.
06:14You have to be.
06:15I got to be posh.
06:16Well, hopefully one day you get to live your Baby Spice life.
06:18Maybe one day, one Halloween, I get to be Baby Spice.
06:25And then the singles from the album, you went with Houdini and Trainee Session.
06:28Why did you feel like those represented this body of work?
06:30Well, Houdini first was almost like a taste of the fun, dancey element.
06:41It was a way of me trying to make a seamless transition from future nostalgia into this new
06:45record by slowly introducing the new sounds, the synths, but also this element of a darker,
06:52dancey, underground feeling.
06:55And at the same time, it's that sense of radical optimism, even from the album artwork.
07:00It's me looking at myself with my tongue connected to myself through the reflection.
07:05And the whole song is about knowing your self-worth in the midst of
07:11maybe some wrong turns or whatever.
07:14Training Season is kind of like a manifestation song in a way.
07:19I had been on a couple of dates, like a string of bad dates, and I went into the studio and I was
07:34like, right, I'm done. I don't want to meet anyone. Training Season is over. I'm done
07:40training up these boys. What started off as a joke in the studio ended up being Training Season
07:45became the term that we stuck with. And they're both upbeat.
07:52Do you think that kind of tells the story of the album? Is that what people can expect from
07:55the full project?
07:56Well, actually, the full project, it's got peaks and troughs all the way throughout.
08:02There are so many dancey elements, but there are some really kind of
08:06more emotional tracks in there too.
08:09Those vocals are going to be soaring.
08:10So I'm excited. I think you get a lot of the duality.
08:16And one thing I wanted to ask you, whenever I know you're performing, I get super excited
08:20because I know I'm going to get the outfit, the choreography, the performance, the pop star, right?
08:24Thank you.
08:25And a lot of people aren't doing that these days. So is that something you think about
08:29when you prepare your performances? Like, I want to give a show.
08:31Yeah, massively. I want to put on a spectacle. I want to put on something that people are
08:35excited to see. So it makes me really happy that you look forward to it. We put a lot of
08:40time and effort into creating something memorable and exciting. And for me, like, I like to go
08:48all the way and cut no corners. And yeah, so it takes a little while to get there, but I love it.
08:54And we can't wait to see you at Glastonbury.
08:55You're the first time in history that two females have headlined the festival.
08:59I know. It's unbelievable. And I'm so proud to be a part of it. Glastonbury is my
09:05favorite festival and one of my favorite places in the world.
09:09I've been dreaming about this moment my whole life. And I've manifested it,
09:12and I've written it down, and I've kept it secret and locked up just hoping for the day to come that
09:17I'd get asked to do it. So it's going to be a really, really special show.
09:21Well, we can't wait to see it. Excited about the album. And thanks so much for
09:24taking time to talk to us. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy.