Dua Lipa
Lipa worked as a model before starting her music career and signing with Warner Bros. in 2014. She released her debut album in 2017, which reached number three on the UK Albums Chart and included the singles “Be the One”, “IDGAF”, and the UK number-one single “New Rules”. She won Brit Awards for British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act in 2018. Her second UK number-one single, “One Kiss” with Calvin Harris, was the best-selling song of 2018 in the UK. She also won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Dance Recording for “Electricity” featuring Silk City in 2019
Lipa’s second album, Future Nostalgia (2020), became her first UK number-one album and reached the top three in the US. Its lead single, “Don’t Start Now”, had the longest top-ten stay for a British female artist on the UK Singles Chart and ranked in the top five on the US Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart of 2020. The album’s success continued with the singles “Physical”, “Break My Heart”, and “Levitating”, with “Levitating” topping the Billboard year-end Hot 100 chart of 2021 and receiving Diamond certification in the US. Future Nostalgia won the Brit Award for British Album of the Year and the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album.
Lipa achieved her third and fourth UK number-one singles with the 2021 Elton John duet “Cold Heart (Pnau remix)” and “Dance the Night” from the Barbie (2023) soundtrack, in which she also made her acting debut. She released her third studio album, Radical Optimism (2024), which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and included the UK top-ten singles “Houdini”, “Training Season”, and “Illusion”. She also appeared in a supporting role in the 2024 spy film Argylle.
Early life
Dua Lipa was born on 22 August 1995 in London, the eldest child of Kosovo Albanian parents Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa. She has a sister, Rina, and a brother, Gjin. Her name, Dua, was suggested by her grandmother and means “love” in Albanian. Her maternal grandmother is of Bosniak descent, and her father’s ancestry is from Peja, Kosovo. Both of her grandfathers were historians.
Dua was musically influenced by her father, who was the lead singer and guitarist of the Kosovan rock band Oda and continued to play music at home. She began singing at the age of five.
Lipa grew up in West Hampstead, London, and attended Fitzjohn’s Primary School, where she took music lessons including the cello. When she auditioned for the school choir, the teacher told her she could not sing. At the age of nine, she began weekend singing lessons at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. In 2008, after Kosovo declared independence, Lipa moved with her family to Pristina. There she attended Mileniumi i Tretë School, improved her Albanian, and started considering a career in music.
At age 15, Lipa moved back alone to London and shared a flat with a family friend. She attended Parliament Hill School, passed her A-Levels, and returned part-time to Sylvia Young Theatre School. She uploaded her own songs to SoundCloud and YouTube, posting covers of songs like Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” and Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful.” Lipa also modelled for Topshop and signed with a modelling agency, which led to a role as a singer in an ITV advertisement for The X Factor in 2013. She then acquired a producer and a manager.
Career
In 2013, Lipa signed a contract with Tap Management, directed by Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, while working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. Lipa was introduced to Mawson by her lawyer, who discouraged her from signing another publishing deal that was offered to her. They then offered her a monthly salary to leave her job and focus on recording music
During one of the sessions, Lipa co-wrote the song “Hotter than Hell,” which led to her signing a record deal with Warner Bros. Records in 2014.
During August 2015, Lipa released her first single, “New Love,” produced by Emile Haynie and Andrew Wyatt. Her second single, “Be the One,” followed in October 2015, achieving major success across Europe and topping charts in Belgium, Poland, and Slovakia, while also reaching the top ten in over eleven European countries. In Australia and New Zealand, it became a notable airplay hit, reaching numbers 6 and 20, respectively. In November 2015, she was named among the acts on the BBC Sound of… 2016 long list.
Her first tour across the UK and Europe started in January 2016 and concluded in early December of the same year. On 18 February 2016, Lipa released her third single, “Last Dance,” followed by “Hotter than Hell” on 6 May, which achieved notable success in the UK, peaking at number 15. On 26 August, her fifth single, “Blow Your Mind (Mwah),” was released, reaching number 30 in the UK.
Her first UK and Europe tour began in January 2016 and ended in December. On 18 February, she released her third single, “Last Dance,” followed by “Hotter than Hell” on 6 May, which peaked at number 15 in the UK. On 26 August, “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)” was released, reaching number 30 in the UK and marking her first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 72. The song also topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart and reached number 23 on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart.
Lipa was featured on Sean Paul’s single “No Lie,” released in November 2016, which reached number ten in the UK and became a top-ten hit in ten countries. The music video surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube in April 2022. In January 2017, she won the EBBA Public Choice Award and released “Scared to Be Lonely” with Martin Garrix, reaching number 14 in the UK.
In May 2017, she performed at the SCTV anniversary and won Young and Promising International Artist at the SCTV Music Awards. Her debut album, Dua Lipa, was released on 2 June 2017. Its single “New Rules,” released the following month, became her first UK number-one and the first by a female solo artist since Adele’s “Hello” in 2015.
The single also charted in the top ten internationally, including number two in Australia, number six in the US, and number seven in Canada. As of 2024, its music video has over three billion YouTube views. Lipa performed at Glastonbury Festival in June, We The Fest in Jakarta in July, and on BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland in October. In December, Spotify named her the most-streamed woman in the UK for 2017. She had four UK top-10 singles that year: “Be the One,” “New Rules,” “No Lie,” and the charity single “Bridge over Troubled Water.”
In January 2018, Lipa received nominations in five categories at the Brit Awards, more nominations than any other artist that year. She was nominated for MasterCard British Album of the Year for Dua Lipa, British Single of the Year and British Video of the Year for “New Rules”, British Female Solo Artist, and British Breakthrough Act winning the latter two.This was the first time that a female artist had received five nominations.
Lipa performed at the 21 February 2018 Brit Awards at the O2 Arena in London. She collaborated with DJ Whethan on “High” for the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack, released in February 2018. On 6 April, she and Calvin Harris released “One Kiss,” which topped the UK Singles Chart on 20 April, becoming her second UK number one. Lipa provided vocals and co-wrote the song, which became the UK’s best-selling single of 2018, holding the top spot for eight consecutive weeks.
She performed at the opening ceremony of the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final in Kyiv on 26 May. Later in 2018, Lipa collaborated with Mark Ronson and Diplo’s superduo Silk City on the song “Electricity,” released on 9 September. She was also featured on Italian singer Andrea Bocelli’s song “If Only” from his sixteenth studio album Sì.
Achievements
Lipa has received numerous accolades, including seven Brit Awards, three Grammy Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, two MTV Europe Music Awards, two American Music Awards, three iHeartRadio Music Awards, nine Spotify 1-billion-streams plaques, and one Bambi Award. She also holds two Guinness World Records.
sold for a livestreamed concert by a solo female artist,and in 2021 for most monthly listeners on Spotify for a female artist, but without surpassing the all-time peak achieved by Ariana Grande the year prior.Dua Lipa won the Top Dance/Electronic Song award at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards for her track Houdini, which topped the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart for 17 weeks.
Time magazine included her in the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024.Billboard ranked Lipa at number 25 on its 2025 “Top 100 Women Artists of the 21st Century” list.
Discography
Main articles: Dua Lipa discography and List of songs recorded by Dua Lipa
- Dua Lipa (2017)
- Future Nostalgia (2020)
- Radical Optimism (2024)
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018, 2020, 2024 | Saturday Night Live | Herself, musical guest | 3 episodes |
| 2024 | An Evening with Dua Lipa | Herself | Television special |
Notes
- Lipa was granted Albanian citizenship in 2022.
- Lipa was granted Kosovo citizenship in 2025.
- Albanian pronunciation:
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