The hills are alive with the sound of sunshine, fruit cider and nights that seem to last forever as London gets its first real taste of summer. Now, we’re not saying Dua Lipa can control the weather but rain just wouldn’t do as she brings her self-titled tour home.
It’s been two and a half years since Dua Lipa released her debut single, ten months since the release of her debut album, but no part of tonight’s very sold-out show at Alexandra Palace feels hurried. ‘New Rules’ might have kicked open the door in the most spectacular of ways but Dua made sure she was ready to walk through when the time came.
That absolute belief drives tonight. Full of purpose, poise and power stances, this is a more than a lap of celebration (that can wait for festivals). It’s deliberately bigger than one person, as Dua turns her journey, her heartbreak and her lessons learned into a space for other people. From the curtain drop opening that promises, “Tonight is about you. Tonight is about the energy in this room that we bring together. Tonight London, I want you to be yourself. Be your frantic and true self. Lose all your inhibitions. Be your most unapologetic self and never listen to anyone that tells you otherwise. Let’s dance the night away and take tonight’s feeling everywhere you go,” to the dance routines, perfected in front of bedroom mirrors with best friends, there’s a contagious energy sweeping through the show.
‘Blow Your Mind (Mwah)’ starts things off as Dua struts about the massive space, knowing she’s got this. A mashup of ‘Dreams’ and ‘No Love’ swiftly follows with the “hope you guys are ready for a party,” as the show grows into something huge, hi-definition and shining bright. Despite the scale, there’s this playful energy. It never tries too hard as Dua, and everyone else, chase what feels exciting.
‘Be The One’ is almost too easy, laying back but never down, before ‘Thinking About You’ slows things up but loses none of that energy in the turn down. ‘New Love’ comes with reflection, the first song she ever released, it signposts a journey’s beginning that shows no sign of end. Two years ago she played to fifty people in Brighton. Tonight, “this is everything I wanted”. There are water coloured roses for ‘No Goodbyes’ as the track blooms and decays before things are switched back on for ‘Hotter Than Hell’. There are so many moving parts, but everything unites under one voice.
‘IDGAF’ is dedicated to “all the fuckboys that have done you wrong. If you would like to participate in the next activity, please put your middle fingers up” while it was only ever going to end with one song. ‘New Rules’ has dominated the past year but the only introduction it needs is a “let’s fucking ‘ave it” before Dua lights the fuse.
‘Dua Lipa’ is defiantly vulnerable, full of unexpected adventures and finding a light in sudden dark and this evening, all that belief, trust and work towards something better comes together in the most glorious way. More than another show, tonight underlines Dua’s place at the top of the pile. New Rules, New Rulers.