Dua Lipa has shared that she feels “very close to” the people who are suffering from war, injustices and inequality.
Lipa was born in 1995 in London as the eldest of three children in a Kosovar-Albanian family. Three years prior to her birth, her father Dukagjin and her mother Anesa fled Kosovo and sought refuge in the UK due to the political instability in Kosovo at the time.
Dukagjin – who sang and played guitar in a band called Oda – and Anesa – who studied law – settled in Camden Town where they raised the pop singer to speak Albanian at home and English at school. Her family returned to Kosovo in 2006 while it was still under the supervision of the United Nations. In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia.
During her teenage years, Lipa started to reflect on the horrific stories of ethnic cleansing and war crimes committed against Kosovar Albanians. At 15, Lipa returned to Camden alone to pursue a music career.
In an interview with Elle, the ‘Houdini’ singer opened up about how she has since spoken to victims of the Kosovo War that struck the country in 1998: “I heard stories from friends (there) who lost family members. Houses burned. I saw them. When you have that direct communication with people who have been through (war), it opens up a completely new world, and it did for me.”
While discussing the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Lipa added: “I feel very close to [those suffering] injustices in the world, or inequality. Whether that be war, or coming out to your family, everyone’s got a different experience… it’s about support and learning together.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone earlier this year, the ‘Be The One’ singer opened up about the idea that people don’t want pop stars to be “smart” or “political”.
Lipa – who runs Service95, an editorial platform featuring a newsletter, book club, podcast and more – has shared that she is a voracious reader and has spoken out against Hamas’ bombardment of Israel. She told the publication: “I don’t know if people believe that I like to read books, or people believe that these conversations are my own. I think it’s a thing of what people want from their pop stars.
“They don’t want you to be political. They don’t want you to be smart. Not that I’m trying to prove myself in that way, but there is so much more to me than just what I do.”
In other news, the pop star has released her third studio album ‘Radical Optimism‘ today (May 3). In a three-star review of the LP, NME shared: “There are tough standards to meet; recent singles ‘Illusion’ and ‘Training Season’ have performed modestly, and Lipa is keen to stress that churning out hits isn’t her focus, she wants the whole album to stand the test of time. It feels unlikely, however, that ‘Radical Optimism’ is that record.”
It continued: “This is a solid pop album – on occasions, a very good one – but also frustratingly passive. Seldom does an artist hype up their upcoming release by downplaying it (aside from Ellie Goulding, who called her latest work her “least personal yet”) but many will finish ‘Radical Optimism’ with a sense of: ‘Is that it?’”
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