Singer Dua Lipa will be pulling double duty on the May 4 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” hosting and acting as the musical guest. The announcement was made during Saturday’s episode, hosted by Ryan Gosling and with music from Chris Stapleton.
Lipa’s upcoming third studio album “Radical Optimism” is set to drop on May 3. She has also dabbled in the acting world, last seen in this year’s big-budget spy adventure “Argylle” and last year’s “Barbie.”
Lipa recently spoke with Variety about the statement she is hoping to make with her upcoming record.
“I think for me, the importance of understanding that when things are bad, there’s always some light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “I always think about it like, when I’m in the midst of a mess of turmoil or everything’s going wrong, I always tell myself, in a couple months, I’m gonna look back on that moment, and be like, thank God I walked through it. I didn’t decide to hide or not deal with the problem at hand, whatever it is, but actually choose to go through it. And that’s how I grew. And I feel like that just overall, especially in the world right now, I think it’s important that we just learn to walk through the fire and not hide away from it, or shy away from it. That’s just optimism. It’s probably the most daring thing we can do.”
Lipa’s episode of “Saturday Night Live” will be the 18th of Season 49. She was previously the musical guest on the Natalie Portman-hosted February 3, 2018 episode and the Kristen Wiig-hosted December 19, 2020 show.
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Few artists have ever fused pop and dance music as fluidly as ABBA, and their influence is writ subtly but large on Dua Lipa’s new single “Training Season” — the second from her still-untitled forthcoming third album — which was previewed during her performance at the Grammy Awards earlier this month.
Driving but not as in-your-face as its predecessor “Houdini,” the song struts along on a powerful disco beat, with a melody that swerves into almost Middle-Eastern scales, reminiscent of ABBA’s biggest disco hits, “Voulez-Vous” and “Gimme Gimme Gimme.” While the initial influence is subtle, it’s unmistakable, and is driven home later in the song with piano flourishes that recalls ABBA keyboardist Benny Andersson’s on many of the group’s hits, most famously “Dancing Queen.” It’s the best kind of tribute: nothing overt, but a sly, fun wink for fans who notice it.
Her collaborators on the song are the same as “Houdini”: Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and Caroline Polachek/ Charli XCX collaborator Danny L. Harle (who produced) along with cowriters Tobias Jesso Jr. (Adele, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus) and Caroline Ailin (who’s cowritten several Lipa hits).
And the video is an awesome commentary on the rigors of dating, which are reflected in her comments about the making of the song.
“I had been on a string of bad dates, and the last one was the final straw,” Dua says in the announcement. “The next morning I arrived to the studio to [cowriters] Caroline and Tobias asking me how it all went and I immediately declared ‘TRAINING SEASON IS OVER,’ and like the best ‘day after’ debriefs with your mates, we had a lot of laughs and it all quickly came together from there.”
She continues, “And while it is obviously about that feeling when you are just absolutely done telling people…men specifically in this case, how to date you right; it is also about my training season being over and me growing with every experience. I have never felt more confident, clear or empowered. And while it may be that training season is never over for any of us, you start to see the beauty in finding that person to experience it with. You stop looking for the trainees and become more interested in having someone where you are and someone to grow with.”
Music superstar Dua Lipa talks about joining the ‘Barbie’ universe as the co-writer and performer of the hit song “Dance the Night” – and her on-set memories playing the mermaids of Barbieland.
Dua Lipa works her magic on multiple Billboard charts dated Nov. 25 with her new single, “Houdini.” Among other entrances, it begins as her first No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
The song drew 23.8 million airplay audience impressions and 12.4 million official streams and sold 7,000 sold downloads in the U.S. Nov. 10-16, according to Luminate, following its release at 6 p.m. ET Nov. 9.
Lipa earns her second No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with the track, which previews her third studio album, expected in 2024. She spent 36 weeks at the summit with “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” with Elton John, beginning in October 2021.
The new song, whose title is an ode to famous late illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini, also launches at No. 11 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, where it’s Lipa’s highest debut to date.
On the Radio Songs chart, “Houdini” starts at No. 25, likewise Lipa’s best beginning. It debuts at No. 16 on Pop Airplay, also a new personal first-week high, and No. 20 on Adult Pop Airplay.
As previously reported, “Houdini” enters at No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200, with 51 million streams and 13,000 sold worldwide. Lipa notches her fourth top 10 on the survey. The song also opens at No. 5 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart, where it’s her fifth top 10.
Lipa celebrated the song’s arrival with fans at the Houdini Estate in Los Angeles on Nov. 14, inviting them to navigate an escape room and, once safely free (if?), to dance.
Following his death nearly a century ago, Houdini has reappeared as the subject of other chart hits. Walter Brennan spent a week at No. 100 on the Hot 100 in 1962 with “Houdini”; Kon Kan hit No. 33 on Dance Singles Sales in 1989 with “Harry Houdini”; and Foster the People’s “Houdini” hit No. 37 on Alternative Airplay in 2012.
Dua Lipa had to postpone her Future Nostalgia tour three times, but once she got on the road, inspiration for new music came to her quickly. In fact, she began writing her latest song, “Houdini,” while she was on tour, she tells Rolling Stone for the latest episode of “The Breakdown.”
After the long life of Dua Lipa’s 2020 sophomore album “Future Nostalgia” — which was pandemic dance therapy for so many — there’s been a hot remix album, a year-long world tour, a global hit single with Elton John and her effervescent single from “Barbie,” so it really doesn’t seem like Variety‘s 2022 co-Hitmaker of the Year been absent. Yet it’s been almost three years since “Nostalgia” dropped, and today we get the first look at her next chapter with “Houdini,” the lead single and video from her still-untitled third full-length album.
It’s a banger alright, with a driving beat, a throbbing bass hook and some very ‘80s synthesizer washes vaguely reminiscent of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life.” The lyrics aren’t about the legendary escape artist except in a symbolic sense (“I’m not here for long/ Catch me or I go Houdini”). In the announcement, she says, “This track represents the most light and freeing parts of my singledom. ’Houdini’ is very tongue in cheek, exploring the idea of whether someone is really worth my while or if I’ll ghost them in the end. You never know where something may take you, that’s the beauty of being open to whatever life throws your way.”
“Houdini” is both a progression from and a continuation of “Future Nostalgia”: The song’s hard beat and dancefloor vibe are pretty much exactly what fans of that album will be hoping for, but its musical backing — coming from the inspired pairing of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and Caroline Polachek/ Charli XCX collaborator Danny L. Harle — is more melodically nuanced than that album’s stadium-sized hooks. “Houdini” is still big, but there’s more going on around the edges, and an unexpected new hook drops into the song’s last minute that brings it to a different place. The song was written by Lipa with Parker and Harle as well as top-flight songwriters Tobias Jesso Jr. (Adele, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus) and Caroline Ailin (whose cowritten several Lipa hits).
There’s been little advance word about what the new album sounds like. She recently told the New York Times that it’s inspired by “1970s style psychedelia” (although there’s little indication of that here). In early 2022 when Lipa told Elton John on her “Dua Lipa: At Your Service podcast” that it was halfway finished, but speaking with Variety late last year, she said, “It’s taken a complete turn as I’ve carried on working, and I really feel now that it’s starting to sound cohesive. So I’m going to keep writing in the early months of the new year and see where that takes me. The album is different — it’s still pop but it’s different sonically, and there’s more of a lyrical theme. If I told you the title, everything would make sense — but I think we’ll just have to wait.”
There’s no official release date yet, but album is expected early next year, so the wait will soon be over.
Dua Lipa has bought the rights to her publishing catalog from TaP Music Publishing, the company announced today. The sale arrives over a year after the singer, who was also previously a part of TaP’s artist management branch, parted ways with the company in February 2022. Lipa has been managed by her father, Dukagjin Lipa, since then.
TaP shared in a statement: “We wish Dua all the best for the future.” Anna Neville, TaP’s co-president, also added: “This is an exciting time for our publishing company – we are expanding our services and teams globally and continue to add talented writers and artists to our already stellar roster.”
Yesterday, Lipa announced her first new song since the Barbie soundtrack’s “Dance the Night,” “Houdini.” She is also set to star in Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming film Argylle. As for more new music on the horizon, Lipa has said her next album will debut in 2024.
Following weeks of cryptic teasers and unsolved riddles, Dua Lipa has officially confirmed her new single “Houdini” will be arriving on Nov. 9
There was somewhat of an indication that Dua was close to releasing new music as a part of her much-buzzed-about new record when she wiped her Instagram and TikTok accounts of any previous content. She also replaced her profile picture on Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter), along with the thumbnails on her streaming channels, with similar kaleidoscope-esque images.
Earlier this week, she also began posting numerical riddles and video clips of her with a gold key in her mouth that led many to believe the single’s (at the time unannounced) title nodded to Harry Houdini, the Hungarian-American illusionist artist.
Dua’s last album was the Grammy award-winning “Future Nostalgia,” a March 2020 release. The latter gave way to pop radio mainstays like “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating,” and Dua has been teasing her third album since early 2022 when she told Elton John on her “Dua Lipa: At Your Service podcast” that it was halfway finished.
However, “it’s taken a complete turn as I’ve carried on working, and I really feel now that it’s starting to sound cohesive,” she told Variety late last year. “So I’m going to keep writing in the early months of the new year and see where that takes me. The album is different — it’s still pop but it’s different sonically, and there’s more of a lyrical theme. If I told you the title, everything would make sense — but I think we’ll just have to wait.”
There has been very little solid information in the 11 months since that conversation. One source told Variety earlier this year that she had been working with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker (which may or may not be what she was referencing when she described the music to the New York Times in August as “1970s psychedelia”) as well as several producers and writers who’d worked on “Future Nostalgia.”
She worked with hit producer Mark Ronson on her fifth career top 10 hit “Dance The Night,” for the “Barbie” soundtrack, released over the summer. This August, Dua also appeared as the cover star for the New York Times Magazine and confirmed the album would be released this year.
That article also included some sonic teasers, like the fact that she doesn’t want to “alienate” her fans from her old sound, although she’s “developing a new sound that may be informed less by the house and disco beats beneath songs like ‘Physical’ and ‘Hallucinate’ than by 1970s-era psychedelia,” the publication wrote.
HOUDINI ⛓️
NOV 9TH 11PM GMT
PRE ORDERhttps://t.co/MZYYiUCTae pic.twitter.com/CFGrxa8huQ— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) November 1, 2023
Looks like Dua Lipa is signing up for a new era. Are you coming with her?
After deleting all prior posts on Instagram, the 28-year-old pop star shared a cryptic teaser video Monday (Oct. 31) full of possible clues regarding long-awaited new music. Her hair dyed bright red, Dua closes her mouth on a gold necklace with a key-shaped pendant and shows a split-second flash of a stack of Polaroids, after which a series of seemingly random numbers flash onscreen: 4, 8, 9, 9, 14, 15 and 21.
The clip is set to what sounds like a snippet of upcoming music; following a descending line of piano notes, Dua sings the words “Tell me all the ways you need me” before a funky bass line kicks in.
sign up dualipa.com,” the Argylle actress wrote in her caption.
On the star’s website, fans are prompted to “Sign Up” for “happiness, passion, love, joy, optimism, energy” and “fun.” After plugging in your phone number, expect a message welcoming you to “Dua’s text community.”
The teaser comes more than three years after Dua’s last album Future Nostalgia, her massively successful sophomore effort which spawned the single “Levitating.” Though the singer has remained busy with acting projects, her Barbie soundtrack contribution “Dance The Night” and various musical collaborations — most notably “Cold Heart” with Elton John and “Sweetest Pie” with Megan Thee Stallion — fans have been antsy for a new album for months.
Many have already started decoding the elusive numbers tacked onto Dua’s teaser, with some concluding that the digits are code for the name “Houdini.” The famed magician notably passed away on Halloween, the same day Dua’s teaser went live. The key in Lipa’s mouth may also be a Harry Houdini reference. During the magician’s public stunts, his wife, Bess, would often pass him the key to his handcuffs via a kiss. The cover of Kate Bush’s 1982 album The Dreaming – which shows the art rocker kissing a chained man with a key in her mouth – is a reference to Houdini.
