Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia Tour

If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy, and I can take you for a ride…

If you’ve never heard this line, you might as well be living under a rock. Levitating by Dua Lipa took the world by storm in 2020, the year of the pandemic, after the release of her sophomore album, Future Nostalgia. The album had been preceded by hit single Don’t Start Now in late 2019 followed by Physical and Break my Heart, but hardcore stans kept asking for Levitating to be a single. Something about the song is almost addictive: the hook is incredible; the production is groovy and it’s impossible to not dance to it. It’s also perfectly suited to Dua Lipa’s voice. We were blessed to hear exactly how the track was born on Hrishikesh Hirvay’s hit Spotify podcast, Song Exploder.

You wouldn’t be expecting to be dancing to these songs two whole years later, but we are. Future Nostalgia’s success is immense, and the star has been in the top 5 artists on Spotify consistently since. Nobody saw it coming, except Dua Lipa herself.

Dua spent the time after her first tour taking in all the criticism she had received and turning them around. People said her dancing was lazy, she had no performance skills, and she was boring. She set out to prove them all wrong and gave the world a dance album that hasn’t been seen in popular music since the 90s. Citing her idols in the dance divas of the 90s and the music she listened to growing up in London and Kosovo, she created a masterpiece. And then came the pandemic.

Everyone thought it would all be over as the pandemic just seemed to go on and on. Instead, people were dancing to Future Nostalgia in their living rooms. It became an instant mood booster and blazed to the top of the charts. The tour was rescheduled to 2022, and critics wondered if the album would still be relevant by then. And yet the tickets kept flying off the shelves.

February 2022 brought us all the glory we had been waiting for, and the tour kicked off with the US leg in Miami. The show brought us amazing dance performances with Dua singing and dancing at the same time along with her backup dancers that have become a fan favourite since her Studio 2054 show. The singer stunned us in a 4-act show with four different outfits, the first one being a dance/size class in a custom Balenciaga bodysuit and high gloves in lime yellow with lace patterns.

Act 2 took us underwater in a Versace swimsuit, glittering silver and bold. Act 3 was a party and a workout all in one, and yet the final act was the one to stop our hearts. Showing up on the Levitator in a custom-made Mugler bodysuit with more than 120,000 crystals, she took everyone’s breath away.

Dua said that waiting two whole years for her moment gave her a chance to change around the setlist and realise what fans wanted. And what they wanted, she delivered. She performs all 11 tracks from Future Nostalgia, two from her first album, the hit single Cold Heart with Sir Elton John and dance hits One Kiss and Electricity. Fans have their favourites of course, but personally, the title track just hits the spot for me.

Critics showered Dua with praise for her exemplary performance night after night- these are the kinds of shows that we rarely get to see. She has carved out her niche now, and she is dominating her space. With three Grammy awards, that really shouldn’t have been a surprise.