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.
Comments