Dua Lipa is motivated by her critics, and wants to prove to them that she’s got staying power.
The pop star, 25, spoke to Vanity Fair about her career in a magazine’s July/August cover issue, revealing that a viral meme knocked her confidence while also pushing her to work harder.
That meme in question stemmed from Lipa’s 2018 Brit Awards performance, where she sang her hit, “New Rules.” In a since-deleted comment under a video of her performance someone wrote, “I love her lack of energy, go girl give us nothing!”
The comment went viral, and deeply affected the British singer.
“It’s one thing when people are mean about you, but you know that you did your best. But it’s another thing when people are mean about you and you know that you actually haven’t had the opportunity to be the best because you’ve spread yourself so thinly in trying to do everything at once,” the “Levitating” singer told Vanity Fair.
She continued, “You want to show that you’re here to stay and you want to show that it’s not just about one album or one big song or whatever it is.”
Following the meme, Lipa said she wanted to make sure she “was very much in control of the fact that I’m going to do the music, then I’m going to rehearse.”
“And then when I come in and I do the performances, they’re all going to be amazing,” the pop star added. “I’m going to prove to people that I can do this and that I’m here to stay.”
Lipa has since received praise for her performances ranging from the Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, the MTV EMA’s and most recently the 2021 Brit Awards.
The Grammy-winning singer is also scheduled to go on tour in September following a delay.
“The year delay to my tour makes it even more exciting. I’m really looking forward to performing live with a live audience,” the “Love Me Again” singer recently said on Radio DeeJay Summer Camp about her upcoming shows.
She added, “I am also grateful today as I feel I can add new dimensions to my performances and tour. It’s like it all happens a year late, which is even more exciting.”
After her Grammy performance in March, Lipa told reporters backstage she “wanted to challenge” herself by doing an outfit change.
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“You know we did so much rehearsals and preparation for it and you know I just wanted to do something fun, something I’ve never done before, I wanted to challenge myself a little bit, whether it was from the outfit changes to the choreography to you creating a little bit of drama in a performance that I felt grew as the performance went on,” she said, adding, “I was just really, really proud of all of us.”
