{"id":53417,"date":"2024-06-18T01:01:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T23:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2058132"},"modified":"2024-06-18T03:28:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T01:28:38","slug":"dua-lipa-i-had-no-plan-b-singing-was-my-only-option","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/dua-lipa-i-had-no-plan-b-singing-was-my-only-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Dua Lipa: \u2018I had no plan B \u2013 singing was my only option\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Radical Optimism superstar chats Glastonbury, politics and Taylor Swift. <\/p>

By Matt Charlton\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 18 June 2024 at 23:01 PM<\/p>

\n\n

This interview first appeared in\u00a0Radio Times magazine<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first time I see Dua Lipa \u201cin person\u201d is at the BRIT Awards in March, albeit from a couple of hundred metres away.<\/p>\n

Having opened the show, she\u2019s up on stage for the second time, accepting the award for Best Pop Act (she was also nominated for Song of the Year and British Artist).<\/p>\n

From the circle seats of London\u2019s huge O2 arena, I watch a tiny figure on a big screen \u2013 and an even bigger stage \u2013 commanding the room, giving her unsuspecting fans a few more clues to her upcoming album, one of the most anticipated releases of 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys give me this radical sense of confidence that I can do anything\u2026 and all the love and the support and the optimism is what inspires me.\u201d A couple of months later, Radical Optimism \u2013 Lipa\u2019s third album \u2013 is sitting pretty in the upper echelons of the UK and US charts.<\/p>\n

When I finally see Lipa a touch closer, she\u2019s comfortably curled up in the corner of a cavernous function room of an east London hotel \u2013 the kind that could double as a dance studio for rehearsing one of her blockbuster routines.<\/p>\n

\u201cTracksuit bottoms on, and hair pulled back from a face that adorns ad campaigns from Versace to Puma, she\u2019s relaxed, collected, confident and snacking on some almonds \u2013 while wearing her own merch \u2013 a football top emblazoned with Radical Optimism. What else?<\/p>\n

Everything about the campaign around Lipa\u2019s latest album shows that, some 10 years after setting out on the road to superstardom, she\u2019s very much at the top of her game when it comes to handling Brand Dua Lipa.<\/p>\n

This is, after all, a 28-year-old with more than 40 billion (not a typo) streams under her belt, a song (Dance the Night) and an acting credit in Barbie<\/a> (one of the most successful movies of all time), 37 weeks at the top of the UK AirPlay chart\u2026 Oh, and this weekend, she\u2019s headlining the biggest festival in the world. \u201cIt\u2019s gone all right,\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n