Future Nostalgia’s impact on the pop industry is unquestionable, and it’s impossible to escape – as if we would want to? – the aforementioned tracks in LGTBQ+ bars and clubs (four of them have already been lip-synced to on RuPaul’s Drag Race). The latter part of the her statement couldn’t be truer. In an Instagram Live, she tearfully admitted to fans: “I’m not sure if I’m even doing the right thing, but I think the thing we need the most at the moment is music, and we need joy and we need to be trying to see the light.” It’s quite alarming, actually, to think that Dua initially had reservations about releasing the album. With only a five-year catalogue of songs, the Future Nostalgia Tour – and this is a testament to Dua’s artistry – felt more like a greatest hits collection than a celebration of one studio album. Her vocals undeniably hit hardest with the arrival of Be The One, Dua’s lauded dream-pop hit from her self-titled debut that still stands as one of the best ballads in recent years. The finest moments of the night came with FN’s baroque pop number Boys Will Be Boys, in which the crowd chanted along to Dua’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics about toxic masculinity and society’s perception of women, duetting with the floating head of Sir Elton John to their number one hit Cold Heart and the sensuous execution of shoulda-been-a-single Pretty Please.įever, a collaboration with Belgian singer Angèle, was another standout thanks to Dua’s euphoric vocals, while the star’s umbrella-assisted tribute to her New Rules video and now-iconic One Kiss jive elicited uproarious reactions from the crowd. Dua’s energy and signature rasp never faltered throughout the whole two-hour set, we should add, even when she performed Levitating from a moving crane platform or when she catapulted her hair around the stage to the psychedelic house beats of Hallucinate. The concert’s opener, Physical, saw the star display tremendous vocal range with exhaustive choreography that could rival some of the most experienced of entertainers. We’ve moved it and postponed it and finally we’re here.” The British singer’s excitement about returning to her home turf was clear, as she proclaimed to the crowd a couple songs in: “This is the best welcome home ever! We’ve been waiting so long to put this show on. This weekend, Dua finally opened the UK leg of her Future Nostalgia Tour in Manchester’s AO Arena after numerous delays as a result of COVID. Dua defeated the so-called “sophomore slump” that has cursed artists in the past and supplied listeners – particularly queer listeners – with exactly what they needed while sequestered in their homes: a slick collection of intelligent, club-ready disco anthems that invoked a sense of excitement of post-lockdown nightlife. Released in the midst of the pandemic, Dua Lipa’s sophomore album was met with overwhelming critical acclaim for reviving disco-pop in the mainstream, spawning chart-topping singles such as Don’t Start Now and Levitating in the process (the latter memorably made history as the longest-charting song by a female artist on the Billboard Hot 100). It’s been said a thousand times, but it bears repeating: Future Nostalgia was the ultimate lockdown record.
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