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The ARIAs sure delivered on the international guest front this year. After a loved-up display with new boyfriend Anwar Hadid at the American Music Awards on Sunday night, Dua Lipa was on a flight to Sydney where she performed her new single “Don’t Start Now” at the ARIA Awards – the first track from her upcoming album.
Like Halsey who also performed at the AMAs and ARIAs, Lipa’s Australian performance looked very much like her Sunday night show. Earlier in the night, the 24-year-old hit the red carpet at The Star in Pyrmont in a Cher Horowitz-inspired feather-trimmed dress. Teamed with a glitter eyelid, centre part, sheer polka dot stockings and platform heels, the singer’s sartorial nod to the 90s continued as she hit the stage. Take a look.
The London phenom first blew up with singles “New Rules” and “IDGAF” in 2017, off her self-titled album. A year earlier, however, Lipa visited Australia and talked to GRAZIA about her dreams of being the star we see her as today. “Growing up my father was a musician. We were always listening to the music he liked and I felt like that was what I wanted to do, I wanted to be a singer,” she said, her English accent soft. “But it was always a playground dream and I never really knew how I’d get there.”
Born and raised in London, Lipa moving to Kosovo to be with her parents before moving back to London to attend theatre school and live with friends when she was 15 years old. “It was a bit like a lost boys den,” Lipa laughed. “I loved this idea that I had this safe haven that my friends could come to to get away. It was really fun, I lived with my best friends.”
“In London, I started posting covers online and then I’d try to meet people and be like, ‘Oh you should check out my music and we should work together’,” she continued. “I was approached to do some modelling. I thought it was a great way to make some extra cash and meet some people but they said I needed t lose some weight if I wanted to be a successful model. I was like, ‘I don’t really want to do this. I just want to eat crispy creams all day’.”
Through friends, Lipa met a music producer and while she admits starting out so young was “really scary” and filled with people who didn’t want the best for her, the singer had her moment earlier this year when she won Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards.
Dua Lipa will return to Australia in March to headline the 2020 Mardi Gras Parade in Sydney.
