Trivia / Dua Lipa

• Breakthrough Hit: "Be the One" put her on the map in Britain, but "New Rules" blew her up on the other side of the Pond.
• Content Leak: All of Future Nostalgia and a few cut songs were leaked about a month before its intended release, causing it to be bumped up for damage control.
• Creator Backlash: She was dismayed after DaBaby turned out to be homophobic and supported the removal of her version of "Levitating" she recorded with him.
• The Other Marty: Dua Lipa was featured on the original version of "Bad to You" with Ariana Grande, which was intended for Sweetener before being shelved, then was revived and remixed for the Charlie's Angels (2019) soundtrack. This released version has a more trap-oriented sound and replaces Dua with Nicki Minaj and Normani.
• Referenced by...: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The JOJOLands begins with Jodio Joestar and his older brother, Dragona, riding a stolen truck. When they're pulled over by the police, Jodio thinks that Dragona may have been playing the radio too loud, of which he was listening to Dua Lipa.
• Release Date Change: Her promotion for Future Nostalgia in early 2020 got hit really badly by sheer bad luck and timing with the COVID-19 Pandemic. As mentioned above, it got leaked and since everyone was home on quarantine anyway, Warner decided to bump its release up by two weeks. The accompanying tour was also delayed from its planned spring start date originally to January 2021 and then another time to September. The number of dates on the tour was also significantly scaled back and it still may be canceled altogether due to slower than expected vaccination rollout. Dua managed to make the best of the situation, holding four Livestream concerts in November 2020 to make up for the tour's original time slot.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Not Dua herself, but a guest performer: her management stopped promoting the original single version of "Levitating" and replaced it with the solo version after guest star DaBaby made homophobic remarks during a performance at the Rolling Loud Festival, resulting in the solo version supplanting the DaBaby version on the charts.
• Sleeper Hit: "Levitating", the third single from Future Nostalgia, initially petered out at #20 in late 2020. Thanks to a couple of remixes, the release of Future Nostalgia: The Moonlight Edition and a Tiktok craze, the song surged into the top 10 in the beginning of 2021, reaching a new high of #5, and after beginning off once again, received yet another surge after her strong Grammy performance of the song, followed by yet another Tiktok wave, ultimately peaking at #2 on Billboard and completing the longest ever trek to the top of the Radio Songs chart, and remained in the top 10 on both charts for months. All told, "Levitating" was ranked the #1 Hot 100 single of the year for its amazing longevity, despite never having reached the top.
• What Could Have Been: This trope happens several times during her career, namely:
  • A Cover Version of "Money" by the Flying Lizards was planned in August 2017, but never got beyond concept stages and rights issues. She also planned it for Future Nostalgia, but the idea was axed.
  • Dua and her friend Sarah Lysander were meant to make an appearance on BBC documentary Watchdog, but this never got past planning stages due to there being no consensus by Watchdog researchers at the BBC, so they never got approached. Had it happened, Dua would have had a sober and serious interview and it would have been nothing to do with her music.
  • "New Rules" was written with Little Mix in mind, with their management team rejecting it because they felt it didn't have a hook.

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