Dua Lipa sang with two music legends last week, the first was Elton John at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
The 29-year-old superstar covered John's "Cold Heart" near the end of her show at the 153 year-old British venue. It was the second time the pair had sung the tune from John's The Lockdown Sessions album. The live debut was at his last of three gigs at Dodger Stadium in 2022.
Lipa and John have performed three times, the first was at the piano legend's Oscars party in 2021 where they sang one of his ("Bennie and the Jets") and one of hers, "Love Again."
You may recall earlier this month Dua spent two consecutive weekends headlining Austin City Limits where yours truly predicted, "only five of her 17 songs were from this year's Radical Optimism. Expect that to change next month."
I noticed the majority of the setlist were from 2020's Future Nostalgia which gave us hits like "Don't Start Now." But like most of my predictions, I was wrong.
The British-born singer of Albanian descent didn't wait till November to unwrap her current album, finally, in front of a Singaporean crowd, but popped the cork at home in the UK at the historic theater.
She even had the good sense to hire a giant orchestra and brought a full-on film crew to document the evening.
Dua's seven band members got to vibe with 14 choristers and The Heritage Orchestra, conducted by Ben Foster. It took an army of 500 to transform the 19th century landmark into a modern in-the-round spectacle ready for filming.
One of the six live debuts Dua had been sitting on until Thursday in London was "Dance The Night," the tune she contributed to the Barbie soundtrack.
If you recall she also had a cameo as Mermaid Barbie in the Oscar-winning film.
The other five live debuts were all from Radical Optimism: "End of an Era," "Maria," "French Exit," "Whatcha Doing," and "Anything for Love."
The 2019 Grammy winner for Best New Artist has now performed all 11 tracks of Radical Optimism live.
Despite not having a US tour this year, choosing instead to do festivals and play around the world, Lipa became the first artist in Spotify history to have 5 songs with over 2 billion streams each
“Don’t Start Now,” “One Kiss,” “New Rules,” “Levitating (Remix);” and that Elton John collab, “Cold Heart.”
Dua has 65 million Spotify subscribers. That's more than Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny, Adele or even Lana Del Rey.
But as large as that number seems, she still has some room to grow. Currently she sits at #21 behind Calvin Harris (20), Shakira, SZA, Kanye, Travis Scott and Drake (15).
Saturday night she hopped the pond and joined Zendaya to induct Cher into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Dua even got to duet with Cher on "Believe," which brought a smile to the face of Cher we haven't seen in a while.
If you want to see Dua, you're in luck. Next month her tour really gets going. She begins the Radical Optimism Tour in Singapore, making stops in Japan, India, Thailand and others, wrapping the 2024 leg in Korea.
Then she takes some time off for the holidays before spending a long time in Australia and New Zealand. After that there is a break that coincides with Coachella. Would she be interested in headlining? Or do you think she just wants to get a 3-day GA wristband and a camping pass?
Go to Dua's website for tickets and find out for yourself.
