TRAINING SEASON IS OVER!!!!!! UGH OUT NOW EVERYWHERE!!!! FINALLY!!!!
THANK YOU TO THE DREAM TEAM https://t.co/fAMM6SsQE7 pic.twitter.com/08CCkjgjR8

— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) February 15, 2024

In a press release, Lipa discussed the backstory behind the single, stating: “I had been on a string of bad dates, and the last one was the final straw. The next morning I arrived to the studio to 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.”

Lipa’s last album was 2020’s ‘Future Nostalgia’, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and earned her more than 10 billion streams on Spotify, as well as the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal in 2021. The singer is yet to share any news of her upcoming third album, but there appears to be plenty on the cards for her this year. Directed by Vincent Haylock, you can watch the full ‘Training Season‘ music video below:

Now, the star has officially confirmed that new music is on the way. In a post shared on her Instagram, which boasts up to 88 million followers, the “New Rules” musician shared the cover art for “Houdini.” The post, which has over a million likes, took fans and other stars by storm.

Former Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello wrote: “hot”, whilst Mexican starlet Eiza Gonzalez said: “Here she comes again!!” followed by a fire emoji. Popstars Normani, Tinashe and TikTok star Addison Rae, who released her debut EP in the summer, also shared their support by liking the post.

Fans of the “Levitating” star were also sharing their buzzing excitement over the news. One person commented: “She’s about to break the internet again, can’t wait!”, and another fan wrote: “BABY LET THE GAMES BEGINNNNNNN!” 

The star, who has mostly centered her music around disco and dance pop, spoke about what fans can expect from her up-coming album. In an interview with T Magazine, the star revealed that her latest record is inspired by “1970s-era psychedelia”. Meanwhile, in an interview with Vogue, the “Cold Heart” singer said: “I’ve definitely grown up. Overall, whether it’s sonically or in terms of the themes, I’ve matured. It’s like I’m coming into my power and not afraid to talk about things. It’s about understanding what I want.”  

Lipa’s upcoming third album will follow from the success of her 2020 record, Future Nostalgia. The album, which has more than 10 billion streams on Spotify, produced the hit singles “Physical”, “Break My Heart” and the lead track “Don’t Start Now.” The sophomore album received praise from critics and publications across the world and was ranked by GQ as the best album of 2020.

Listen to “Break My Heart.” 

Since then, the star has gone on to release droplet singles. In 2021, Lipa teamed up with Elton John and collaborated on the smash single “Cold Heart”, which won the Top Dance/Electronic Song at the Billboard Music Awards a year later. This year, Lipa released “Dance The Night” from the 2023 Barbie movie soundtrack, which also became another hit in the popstar’s discography.

After wiping her entire Instagram profile of around 1500 posts, Lipa shared a teaser video with the caption “I’m not here for long”. The snippet showcases the singer’s new auburn look in a series of close-up shots set to an italo-disco-inspired groove, culminating with the lyrics “catch me or I go”. The video has since been deleted.

Fans will have noticed that keys played a significant role in the teaser: Lipa opens her mouth to reveal a key lying on her tongue, while the sound of metallic rustling and unlocking prematurely cuts off the music, leaving bewildered listeners with an enigmatic impression.

Indeed, the pop star’s online behaviour has been particularly cryptic as of late. As well as wiping her Instagram feed, Lipa changed her various social media profile pictures to an image of her eyes reflected in a kaleidoscopic diamond shape. 

Not only that, but upon closer inspection, it seems all of her YouTube thumbnails, as well as album artworks on streaming platforms such as Spotify, have been swapped with kaleidoscopic versions of the original depictions.

Every sign points towards a much-anticipated third studio album – and a new Dua Lipa “era”. In August, the singer revealed that her new record will be coming out in 2024, but will mark a departure from the house-inspired sound of Future Nostalgia. 

Listen to “Don’t Start Now” off Future Nostalgia:

According to Lipa, the new collection of songs is heavily informed by “1970s-era psychedelia”, which the new imagery she has been teasing seems to support. In an interview with Variety, the pop star explained:

“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.”

Lipa is said to be working with a smaller group of collaborators, including modern psychedelia wizard Kevin Parker of Tame Impala – a songwriting partnership the former “all but confirmed” during an interview with The New York Times Style Magazine in August.

Meanwhile, producer Mark Ronson, who worked with Lipa on Barbie smash-hit “Dance The Night”, revealed that he has heard some of the new album, describing it as “incredible”.

Listen to “Dance The Night” below:

Brown and Linzer went online to address the complaints, stating that, “Defendants have levitated away plaintiffs’ intellectual property, plaintiffs bring suit so that defendants cannot wiggle out of their willful infringement.” No pun intended. They also go on to explain how Lipa highlighted in numerous interviews that her album (Future Nostalgia, obviously) was intentionally emulating the sounds of a different era. They also go on to explain that Lipa’s success with the song came through the shortness of the allegedly infringed hook and its relation to the inherently short nature of any viral TikTok breakout, “Because video creators frequently truncate the already brief snippets of sound on TikTok, the signature melody often comprises 50% or more of these viral videos.”. See ‘Wiggle and Giggle All Night’ below to make up your own mind.

The case is set to go against Lipa, her record label (Warner Music Group), a host of other songwriting and production parties, and even DaBaby – who featured on the song’s remix that came out 6 months later. Lipa is yet to comment on either of the cases. In a conversation with Rolling Stone, Musicologist Joe Bennett weighed in on the situation. While the melodies may be similar, copyright infringement is about confluence – and according to Bennett “In my opinion, for what it’s worth, I think this is a coincidence.”

Singer songwriter Dua Lipa has taken the modern pop world by storm since her first studio album ‘Dua Lipa: Complete Edition’ back in 2018. Her second studio album ‘Future Nostlagia’, which was released in March 2020 by Warner Records, raised that bar even further for the artist. ‘Future Nostlagia’ was reviewed by mxdwn, and can be read about here. The popularity and critical acclaim that the album granted Dua, is now even more apparent as it has awarded her with the title of most played songs on UK radio and television.

It’s no wonder Dua Lipa has become a household name in the last few years. Her introduction onto the music scene was met with a lasting success back in 2017, which has carried her through until now. This year the artist won two BRIT Awards, one for Mastercard Album and another for Female Solo Artist. As well as this, Dua won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2021 Grammy’s. The 25-year-old is the recipient of numerous other awards and nominations – so the news of her being the most played artist of 2020 is no surprise amongst the array of her previous achievements.

In becoming the most played artist of 2020, Dua Lipa has taken over from Ed Sheeran who had been the UK’s impressive most-played artist repeatedly since 2017. The unique disco pop and youthful energy of Dua Lipa shows for a promising duration with her newfound title. Her music, specifically the singles ‘Don’t Start Now’ and ‘Physical’, have also earnt her a place amongst the 10 most popular songs on UK airwaves. It’s safe to say that the UK cannot get enough of Dua Lipa and that her mainstream success is undoubtable.

Dua Lipa’s mainstream success, and hard work exerted to achieve this, is recognised by in her label boss Joe Kentish. In an interview with Kentish about Dua Lipa, he stated that “you’re half-expecting that she might want to take a break or go about things differently but she’s like ‘Right, what’s next?’ Her interests, her knowledge, her thirst to learn new things and to be in control of what she does just grows and grows She’s taking time to fully realise the album conceptually, but her belief in herself and the belief that she can pull off something completely different and at scale has only grown.”

Dua Lipa’s growth as an artist and an individual is celebrated by PPL’s recognition that her second studio album ‘Future Nostlagia’ has granted her the title of most played artist of 2020.

‘It’s The Terminator of albums, it just cannot be stopped!’ he says of the Grammy award-winner album. ‘Every time we think it’s down, another single pops off in another territory or on another platform. And her work ethic is legendary. We use her as an example to other artists at the label and I know her management company, Tap Music, do the same.’

Talking about her new body ok work, he states: ‘She was talking about album No.3 when we barely had No.2 done! You’re half-expecting that she might want to take a break or go about things differently but she’s like ‘Right, what’s next?’ Her interests, her knowledge, her thirst to learn new things and to be in control of what she does just grows and grows. She’s taking time to fully realise the album conceptually, but her belief in herself and the belief that she can pull off something completely different and at scale has only grown.’

For the 2021 edition of the Grammys, Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ was awarded Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Album. In the same edition, the performer also won Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance with the track ‘Don’t Start Now’. At only 25 years old, the singer achieved her success in 2017 with the single ‘New Rules’, peaking number one in the U.K. charts and number 6 in the States. One year later, she has conquered the Brits’ categories of British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act.

“Yeah, I think so! This kind of feels like a good way to round it up – especially with performances – but I’ve still got everything crossed that hopefully I’ll be back on the road and still touring this album.” The singer also spoke directly concerning when her fans can expect new music. “I’m working on some bits, so possibly there will be something soon.” In the full interview below, the singer speaks further concerning new material and states her excitement to attend the awards and perform and also discusses her contemporaries.

During her win at this year’s awards, the singer scooped a hat trick of awards. She won Best British album for ‘Future Nostalgia‘, best British single for the singer’s 2020 smash hit ‘Physical‘ and the Best Female Solo Artist Award for the second time. During her acceptance speech for the Best Female Solo Artist Award, Lipa called for action. She called out the Prime Minister’s contentious one per cent pay raise for nurses, also during her acceptance speech Lipa dedicated her award to Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, who famously battled during her career to ensure that the NHS was fair and promoted equality. She is famed for forming the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice which she formed as a professor of nursing, the centre was established in 1998 to battle the racial inequalities within the nursing industry, Anionwu worked at the centre until her retirement in 2007.

Within her acceptance speech, Lipa spoke about Anionwu’s importance and why she decided to dedicate part of her award to the important figure.

“I think this is such an incredible initiative to give another part of your award to someone and I’ve chosen that my Best British Female of the year is Dame Elizabeth Anionwu. She has spent her stellar nursing career fighting racial injustice. She has also spent so much time and is a strong, strong advocate for protecting frontline workers.”

Lipa then turned her attention to the controversial topic and with a rousing speech urged everyone to show their support for the cause.

“[Anionwu] has also said that there’s a massive disparity between gratitude and respect for frontline workers because it’s very good to clap for them but we need to pay them. And so I think what we should do is we should all give a massive massive round of applause and give Boris a message that we all support a fair pay rise for our frontline.”

Judging from this exciting news regarding new material, it would appear that fans can look forward to Lipa toping her record-shattering album ‘Future Nostalgia’. Fans will also get a chance to see the superstar live during her UK tour, which is due to start this September in Liverpool at the M&S Bank Arena.

Dua Lipa UK Tour

10/09/2021 – M&S Bank Arena – Liverpool
11/09 – The SSE Hydro – Glasgow
13/09 – Utilita Arena Newcastle – Newcastle Upon Tyne
15/09 – Motorpoint Arena Cardiff – Cardiff
16/09 – A0 Arena – Manchester
18/09 – 3Arena – Dublin
19/09 – 3Arena – Dublin
21/09 – First Direct Arena – Leeds
24/09 – O2 Arena – London
25/09 – O2 Arena – London
27/09 – Motorpoint Arena Nottingham – Nottingham
28/09 – Utilita Arena Birmingham – Birmingham

Taking place 27th November, the event has been named ‘Studio 2054′ and described as “a brand new multi-dimensional live experience”. It will see Lipa play tracks from ‘Future Nostalgia’ and its remix album, as well as many hits. The show will be a visually exciting piece or art, streamed from a warehouse with various sets.

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Studio 2054 // general sale 8:00am local time Friday, 30th October dualipa.com

A post shared by DUA LIPA (@dualipa) on Oct 28, 2020 at 3:59pm PDT

To reveal the news, the artist held an Instagram live for her 54 million followers, in which she gave details of the concert, saying that it will be entirely different from her usual live shows – and she’s very excited for it. There will be guests appearances including Elton John, who joined Lipa on Instagram to be interviewed.

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A post shared by DUA LIPA (@dualipa) on Oct 28, 2020 at 1:33pm PDT

Tickets will go on sale on Friday at 8am BST, and there will be multiple options available: Standard tickets at £8.99, or bundle tickets at £15 with pre-show behind-the-scenes footage and a meet-and-greet with Lipa.

Also coming on Friday is the new single ‘Fever’ featuring Angèle; the first release since Lipa’s album. Although not confirmed, it’s likely that the song will be added to the set-list for ‘Studio 2054′.

The artist does have plans to perform live on tour in 2021, despite having to reschedule twice because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, the dates are planned to go ahead in September 2021.