Dua Lipa has “had quite the year” every year since she burst onto the scene, but there’s no doubt that the start of the saw Dua cement herself as a global pop cultural fixture.
After her sophomore album, Future Nostalgia kept us dancing through the darkest of times during the COVID-19 pandemic, the British pop star took the world by storm one arena at a time. Her mᴀssively successful Future Nostalgia Tour recently wrapped in Tirana, Albania at the end of November.
Dua returned to the States to give the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball presented by Capital One a taste of the charisma and talent that captured audiences across the globe. To kick off her set, the pop star started off with one of her newest fan favorites, “Physical.”
She then took fans back to where it all started: her breakthrough hit “New Rules.” Dua’s anthemic breakup anthem off her debut album caught everyone’s attention leaving avid pop fans curious to see if she’d be a one-hit-wonder or a genuine luminary. Her next song of the night, “One Kiss,” continued the narrative of her rise to the top of the mainstream music industry.
Dua’s dance-pop collab with Calvin Harris was an instant hit although a video of her giving an unenergetic performance of the song went viral. The singer took the critiques in stride and spent the next several years working on her dance moves and Dua used the next in her Jingle Ball set to prove just how far she’s come. As clear chairs arrived on the stage, Dua performed an impeccable chair routine with her dancers all while singing another fan-favorite off Future Nostalgia, “Hallucinate.”
Dua slowed things down a bit, sitting on the stage surrounded by her dancers to sing her smash-hit collaboration with the legendary Sir Elton John, “Cold Heart.” Dua recently joined Elton on stage in Los Angeles to perform the song for his last North American tour date ever.
To close out the show, Dua performed two of the biggest hits from her latest album. The funky, “Levitating” and the album’s lead single “Don’t Start Now” have dominated the airwaves since their releases and were a major part of the nu-disco trend that has kicked off the 2020s. During the closer, “Don’t Start Now,” Dua and her troupe of dancers gave the Jingle Ball crowd one last glorious dance break. While on tour, Dua typically busted out the viral “One Kiss” dance during the last song, turning a meme into a visual symbol of the singer’s dedication to her craft, and reminding us all that she’s worked hard to earn her тιтle as one of pop’s brightest stars.
