Dua Lipa (album)

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Dua Lipa is the debut studio album by English singer Dua Lipa. It was released on 2 June 2017 by Warner Bros. Records. The lyrical themes revolve around her personal views of love, rising above, sex, and self-empowerment.

The album has spawned eight singles, including the UK top 40 singles "Be the One", "Hotter than Hell", "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)", "IDGAF" and "New Rules", with the last becoming Lipa's first number-one single in the UK. "New Rules" also reached the top 10 in the United States, peaking at number six. The album received positive reviews from music critics.

On 19 October 2018, a super deluxe edition of the album, titled Complete Edition, was released. It features three brand-new songs including Kiss and Make Up with K-pop group Black Pink and past collaborations Lipa has been featured on, including Calvin Harris's UK number-one single "One Kiss".

Background and composition
Lipa relocated from her parents' Kosovo back to England at the age of 15, with the intent to pursue music as a career. Without family, she took up residence in Camden, London, and shared a flat with a friend, re-enrolling at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School part-time. Lipa networked as she hostessed at nightclubs and began modeling; she starred in a 2013 X Factor commercial that brought wider exposure.

Upon completing her studies at Parliament Hill School, Lipa decided to take a gap year and resolved to find a music manager—which came to fruition as her demos caught the attention of Ben Mawson and she inked a major-label deal with Warner Bros. Records before the year was through. Work on her debut album began immediately in 2015 as Mawson arranged sessions with a string of collaborators, and Lipa seeking a sound marrying that of J. Cole and Nelly Furtado. Work continued throughout 2016 as Lipa traveled to promote released music in the United States. Lipa describes the album as "dark pop". Commenting on the album's direction, Lipa said "When I had taken interest with my own music, I would listen to Nelly Furtado, P!nk and Destiny's Child, but as I grew older I found my love for hip hop, so the main thing I listen to are rap..., I love the realness behind it, that's why I try to also bind that into the music". "This album has a mixture of that and a heavy influence with hip hop. where I like to sing the rap, so I start my verses that are very fast paced then you hear a pop chorus".

During an interview with the Official Charts Company in June 2017, Lipa said, "I've been working a lot, writing some more, finishing off the album... it's been really crazy – I've been working with some amazing people. A couple of things have happened where I've had to stop and pinch myself." She also confirmed that she was working with MNEK in the studio.

Release
The album was originally scheduled to be released on 30 September 2016, but it was eventually pushed back to 10 February 2017. On 11 January 2017, Lipa announced via Twitter that the album's release had been delayed again until 2 June, as she wanted to include "new songs and exciting collaborations". The song "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" was released to iTunes on 26 August 2016, along with the reveal of the album artwork and pre-order.

In April 2017, a series of animated collages for each track on the album was produced by artist Joe Webb.

Title and artwork
Commenting on the album title and cover, Lipa said, "I'm so excited to share my album artwork with you and thank you all for being so patient and supportive. The reason it is self-titled is because this album is me. It's a pure representation of who I am as a person and as an artist". The standard album cover has been described as "minimal yet smoldering", featuring Lipa in a scaly jacket and she stares longingly into the camera with wet hair covering one side of her face with shades of purple and blue. The deluxe album cover features the same picture of Lipa, just with the difference in the shades, now being pink and green, while the Complete Edition features the same picture with glitter added to the background.

Singles
"Be the One" was released as the first proper single from the album on 30 October 2015. It was met with widespread commercial success, being certified platinum the UK, Australia, Belgium and Italy, and gold in Germany, and reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart.

"Last Dance" was released as the album's second single on 9 February 2016.

"Hotter than Hell" was released as the third single on 6 May 2016. The song peaked at number 15 in United Kingdom and reached the top 20 in several markets.

"Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" was released as the fourth single on 26 August 2016, giving Lipa her second UK top 40 single at the time.

The album's fifth single, "Lost in Your Light", was released on 21 April 2017 and features Miguel.

"New Rules" was released as the sixth single from the album on 7 July 2017, and has reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Lipa's first number-one single on the chart.

On 1 December 2017, "Homesick" was released as a digital single and later the same month for airplay in Belgium and the Netherlands.

On 16 November 2017, it was confirmed that "IDGAF" would be the album's eighth single. It was serviced to contemporary hit radio in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2018. The song peaked at number 3 in United Kingdom and reached the top 10 in several markets.

Promotional singles
Preceding regular single "Be the One", "New Love" was released as the album's first promotional single on 21 August 2015. In support of the buzz track, a music video, directed by Nicole Nodland, was released.

On 28 October 2016, the second promotional single "Room for 2" was released. An accompanying music video was released a week later on Hunger TV's YouTube channel.

A studio version of "Thinking 'Bout You", a previous demo song recorded by Lipa, was released as the third promotional single on 6 January 2017.

See in Blue documentary
On 20 December 2016, Lipa released a documentary short film produced by The Fader teamed up with YouTube Music and directed by Robert Semmer, titled See in Blue. The documentary details her journey in music thus far and shows off her true, new self—who she has been working to become. Intent on authenticity and influenced by the likes of J. Cole and Nelly Furtado, her dreams of making a pop album that defines her as an artist have come true. As the daughter of a musician, Lipa grew up surrounded by music, inspired by listening to Christina Aguilera, Stereophonics, and Robbie Williams as a teenager. At 15, she started posting videos on YouTube, showcasing her voice with covers of her favourite songs. "I've had ups and downs trying to find myself", she said about the process of discovering her sound. "You've got to work really, really hard—not just for music, but for anything you do in life", Lipa said about her come-up to pop star. "I didn't think having a career like this was in my reach", she continued. "No rest for the wicked. Dreams do come true", she says in the last lines of the documentary.

Tour
To promote the album, Lipa embarked on two concert tours. First, she went onto an US and Europe Tour in early 2017. She later embarked on The Self-Titled Tour. It is Lipa's most successful tour to date. Tickets went on sale, and sold-out quickly.

Critical reception
Dua Lipa received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 72, based on nine reviews. Alex Green of Clash lauded it as "a debut album brimming with confidence, confidence not only in Lipa's own voice and her eye for a chorus, but in the emotive quality of her lyrics." Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic praised the album as "a delightful collection of catchy pop gems where the songs only serve to highlight her vocal prowess" and "an excellent first effort from a budding pop star". Writing for NME, Jamie Milton wrote that Lipa's voice "could make the thickest synths seem tame in comparison and carries a 20-a-day raspiness capable of making heartfelt ballads sound edgy", adding that "it's equally impressive to hear how confidently the debut holds itself together, flitting between styles but always shining a spotlight on a legitimate pop sensation."

Ben Hogwood of musicOMH referred to Lipa's "powerful and distinctive" voice as "one of the most distinctive you will hear in pop music currently", while commenting that "[t]he only potential issue with her approach lies in the production behind the songs". Hogwood concluded that "the hope is that her talents will get more room and less post-production time." Kate Solomon of Q magazine praised Lipa's voice as "very, very good" and opined, "What makes this album more than just a load of precision-engineered musical nothingness between a series of tentpole singles is Lipa herself. Songs that in other hands would be little more than throwaway filler swell into anthems for girls who can't stop falling in love." In a mixed review, The Guardian's Hannah J. Davies stated that "[d]espite a few generic offerings", the album is "a solid pop debut that is high on summery nonchalance". DIY writer Alim Kheraj remarked that "across the album's 12 tracks there are bangers aplenty", but ultimately found that a lot of the album "feels overthought and calculated".

Commercial performance
Dua Lipa debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart, selling 16,223 copies in its first week. Following Lipa's appearance at the 2018 Brit Awards, where she won two awards and performed, the album reached a new peak position of number three, with 9,518 copies sold. It also peaked at number three on the Irish Albums Chart. In the United States, Dua Lipa debuted at number 86 on the Billboard 200, before peaking at number 27 in February 2018 with 15,000 copies sold. As of December 2017, the album had sold 1.2 million units worldwide.

Dua Lipa: Complete Edition
Notes
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 * $undefined$ signifies an additional vocal producer
 * $undefined$ signifies a vocal producer
 * $undefined$ signifies a co-producer
 * $undefined$ signifies a main and vocal producer
 * $undefined$ signifies a remixer

Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of the deluxe edition of Dua Lipa.

Musicians
 * Dua Lipa – vocals (all tracks); backing vocals (tracks 4, 11)
 * Andreas Schuller – keyboards, percussion (track 1)
 * Leroy Clampitt – guitar (track 1)
 * Miguel – drums, percussion, bass, vocals (track 2)
 * Rick Nowels – electric guitar, keyboards (track 2)
 * Stephen "Koz" Kozmeniuk – guitar (track 2); drums (tracks 2, 3, 5, 8, 9); synths (tracks 2, 5, 9); keyboards (tracks 3, 8, 17); bass (tracks 5, 8, 9, 11); piano (track 5); additional drums, synth programming (track 11); programming (tracks 11, 17); backing vocals (track 17)
 * Dean Reid – percussion, synth bass, electric guitar, keyboards (track 2)
 * Mighty Mike – live drums (track 2)
 * Zac Rae – piano, synths (track 2)
 * Jay Reynolds – additional keyboards (track 3)
 * Aadin Church – backing vocals (track 3)
 * Talay Riley – backing vocals (tracks 3, 17)
 * Lucy Taylor – backing vocals (track 4)
 * Jack Tarrant – guitar (track 4)
 * MNEK – additional backing vocals (track 5)
 * Todd Clark – additional backing vocals (track 5)
 * Larzz Principato – guitar (track 5)
 * Jon Levine – keyboards, Rhodes, bass, guitar, drum programming (track 6)
 * Greg Wells – piano, drums, bass, synths (track 7)
 * Grades – keyboards, programming, drums (track 8)
 * Adam Argyle – guitar (track 9)
 * Ian Kirkpatrick – programming (track 10)
 * Cara Salimando – backing vocals (track 11)
 * James Flannigan – piano, drums, drum programming, synth strings, percussion, programming (track 11)
 * Chris Martin – additional vocals, piano (track 12)
 * Tom Neville – percussion, programming (track 13); keyboards (tracks 13, 14)
 * Tom Barnes – drums (track 16)
 * Pete Kelleher – keyboards (track 16)
 * Ben Kohn – guitar (track 16)
 * Matt Vlahovich – additional keyboards (track 17)

Technical
 * Axident – production (track 1)
 * Big Taste – additional production (track 1)
 * Lorna Blackwood – additional vocal production (track 1); vocal production (tracks 2, 5)
 * Cameron Gower Poole – additional vocal production (track 1); engineering (track 9)
 * Jeff Gunnell – engineering assistance (tracks 1, 5)
 * Tim Burns – mixing (tracks 1, 13, 14)
 * John Davis – mastering (tracks 1, 3–5, 7, 8, 11–17)
 * Miguel – production (track 2)
 * Stephen "Koz" Kozmeniuk – production (tracks 2, 3, 5, 7–9, 17); additional production (track 11)
 * Manny Marroquin – mixing (tracks 2, 15)
 * Chris Galland – mix engineering (track 2); mixing assistance (track 15)
 * Jeff Jackson – mix engineering assistance (track 2)
 * Robin Florent – mix engineering assistance (track 2)
 * Kieron Menzies – engineering (track 2)
 * Dean Reid – engineering (track 2)
 * Trevor Yasuda – engineering (track 2)
 * Chris Garcia – engineering (track 2)
 * Chris Gehringer – mastering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
 * Jay Reynolds – additional production (track 3); mixing (track 7)
 * Tom Neville – vocal production (track 3)
 * Michael Sonier – engineering assistance (tracks 3, 17)
 * Serban Ghenea – mixing (tracks 3, 4, 6, 16)
 * John Hanes – engineering for mix (tracks 3, 4, 6, 16)
 * Digital Farm Animals – production (track 4)
 * Jack Tarrant – vocal production (track 4)
 * Evelyn Yard – recording (track 4)
 * Larzz Principato – co-production (track 5)
 * Josh Gudwin – mixing (tracks 5, 10, 11)
 * Joel Peters – engineering (track 5)
 * Jon Levine – production, engineering (track 6)
 * Greg Wells – production, engineering (track 7)
 * Grades – co-production, vocal recording (track 8)
 * Matty Green – mixing (tracks 8, 9, 17); mastering (track 9)
 * Olly Thompson – engineering assistance (track 9)
 * Ian Kirkpatrick – production, vocal production, engineering (track 10)
 * James Flannigan – production (track 11)
 * Suzy Shinn – additional vocal production (track 11)
 * Matt Deutchman – production coordination (track 11)
 * Bill Rahko – production, engineering (track 12)
 * Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young – mixing (track 12)
 * Aleks von Korff – engineering assistance (track 12)
 * Ten Ven – production (tracks 13, 14)
 * Emile Haynie – production (track 15)
 * Andrew Wyatt – production (track 15)
 * Ike Schultz – mixing assistance (track 15)
 * TMS – production (track 16)