Music's New It-Girl
Dua Lipa is undoubtedly this generation’s newest girl power icon. If you haven’t heard her name yet, you’ve definitely heard her number 1 song: New Rules. New Rules, a song about loving yourself and getting over your ex, literally lists off rules to tell yourself about how to move on. The catchy song quickly became a mantra for girls everywhere this past summer, and with iconic lyrics like “And if you’re under him, you ain’t getting over him,” there’s no surprise this song reached number one on the UK charts and number seven on the US charts. With her powerful voice, killer style and a passion for female empowerment, Dua Lipa is the new pop heroine we deserve.
Although she’s only released one album, Dua Lipa had four singles reach the UK top ten in 2017, became the most streamed woman in the UK in 2017 and became the most ever nominated female artist at the Brit Awards. Her five nominations including British Female Solo Artist, Best Breakthrough Act, Mastercard British Album of the Year, British Single of the Year, and British Video of the Year, are nothing short of well-deserved. Her New Rules video is easily the greatest music video of 2017, featuring incredible choreography, matching outfits and colorful visuals as a testament to the power of female friendship. The video hit one billion views on YouTube this week, making her the youngest female artist (she’s only 22!) to hit this number.
New Rules isn’t Dua’s only empowerment bop off her self-titled debut album. In IDGAF, her newest single, Dua sings about telling an ex who tries to come back to her that it’s too late, she’s moved on and really doesn’t care about him anymore. The video, featuring teams of matching blue and orange pantsuits and Dua Lipa singing to a copy of herself, is the embodiment of self love.
Not only is Dua killing it in the music world, but she’s also become an icon in the fashion world. With her signature look being a blazer paired with a bra and pants combo, she’s known for consistently mixing menswear and womenswear. She also rocks streetwear and is a huge fan of Adidas. Her love of Adidas is so well-known, she was even asked to partner with them in their newest Adidas Originals campaign. Within the past year, she also became one of the newest ambassadors for European Foot Locker and became the new face for Italian fashion brand Patrizia Pepe. Overall, Dua believes in dressing however you want in whatever way that empowers you. "Everyone is allowed to wear whatever the f*ck they want, and it’s so important that they do," Dua Lipa told Refinery29. "This is the way we move forward in the world. We have to break the norms.”
Currently, Dua Lipa is in and out of Jamaica working on her second album, promoting New Rules on SNL and The Ellen Show and recovering from a sad split from LANY’s frontman Paul Klein (RIP to the embodiment of relationship goals. If you haven’t teared up watching Paul dance to New Rules in a Chicago Nike store while telling everyone that it’s his girlfriend on the radio, you haven’t lived). But with the momentum she currently has, an upcoming tour with Bruno Mars and less than a week until the Brit Awards, she’s sure to further solidify herself as the woman to watch in pop music.