Summer may be winding down but it got mighty hot at Madison Square Garden on Sunday (9/21) when Dua Lipa was joined with Lenny Kravitz for a duet on “It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over.”
The Radical Optimism Tour had already delivered a NYC surprise when, Nile Rodgers joined the sexy singer the night before, but at 60, Lenny is magically sexier than ever and strutting next to Dua: holy smokes.
Lipa told the 18,000 in attendance, “When I go back to thinking about New York artists, and music that shaped my life, I think about this one song in particular that really helped me fall in love with music," she said, adding, "the artist that sings this song … might be a little cooler. And he’s here tonight.”
Lenny's body still rocks and so does his chops. The native New Yorker's voice filled the Garden with the same sultriness it carried (four years before Dua was born) in 1991, when the Mama Said banger became his biggest single.
Afterward, Kravitz thanked Lipa publicly for the invitation, calling it pure joy to make music with her. It marked the first time the two had appeared together onstage. Why would it be the last? Who do we need to beg?
Across the tour, Lipa has welcomed several guests to share the stage with her.
Earlier this summer in Milan she covered Raffaella Carrà’s “A Far L’amore Comincia Tu” with the Italian singer as her guest.
In Antwerp Pierre de Maere joined her for “These Walls.” At another Antwerp date, Angèle appeared for “Fever.”
Charli XCX took the stage for “360” in London and later at Wembley there was a rare appearance from Jamiroquai where they duetted on his '96 hit "Virtual Insanity."
And on Saturday (9/20) Rodgers performed “Le Freak,” the song he co-wrote and recorded with his band Chic alongside the Brit.
Lipa had no problem selling a million tickets for this tour, but fun moments like these with legendary guests sure don't hurt. And what a way to cap off the four-night residency at MSG than with Lenny and his bad self.
Dua delivered her hits too: “One Kiss,” “Break My Heart,” “Levitating,” “New Rules,” “Dance the Night,” “Don’t Start Now” and “Houdini.” The four nights in the Big Apple followed its usual four-act structure, capped with a four-song encore.
Commercially, the Radical Optimism Tour has already grossed more than $100 million, making it her most successful tour yet. Propelled by the singles from Radical Optimism that have made themselves known on the Billboard Hot 100 without breaking the Top 10.
“Houdini” peaked at #11, “Training Season” reached #27, “Illusion” climbed to #36, and “These Walls” landed at #48.
But maybe a more telling metric is the modern one: on Spotify your girl has accounted for 25.7 billion streams in her career.
That number, however, is deceiving, and could be a tad alarming for her camp. As lovely as the new record is, it doesn't have one tune that has garnered over a billion streams on its own. And it's not because her fans hate Spotify.
After Future Nostalgia came out in 2020, listeners streamed the hell out of that record. Five tracks from the LP went over a billion: “Don’t Start Now,” 3 billion; “Levitating (feat. DaBaby),” 2.7 billion; “Break My Heart, ”1.4 billion; “Physical,” 1.1 billion; “Levitating," 1.1 billion.
The best Radical Optimism has yielded is "Houdini," at a respectable 900 million, but still.
The US leg marches on for multiple dates in Miami, Dallas, the Forum in LA, Frisco and Seattle before taking a tiny break before going to South America and then Mexico.
Get your tix if you can on Dua Lipa's website.
Radical Optimism Tour 2025 remaining dates
09/26-09/27 Kaseya Center, Miami
09/30-10/01 American Airlines Center, Dallas
10/04-10/05, 10/07-10/08 Kia Forum, Inglewood
10/11-10/12 Chase Center, San Francisco
10/15-10/16 Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle
11/07 Estadio River Plate, Buenos Aires, Argentina
11/11 Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos, Santiago, Chile
11/15 Estádio MorumBIS, São Paulo, Brazil
11/22 Estádio Nilton Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
11/25 Estadio San Marcos, Lima, Peru
11/28 Estadio Nemésio Camacho El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia
12/01-12/02 Estadio GNP Seguros, Mexico City, Mexico
12/05 Estadio GNP Seguros, Mexico City, Mexico
