Review | Dua Lipa at Heaven: A lot of 'New Love' for this bright pop prospect

Dua Lipa took to the stage at London’s Heaven nightclub last night (March 31) to perform an LP’s worth of songs, including three strong singles, a couple of covers, and rather more new songs than was expected.

As one of her first major live performances – back in December 2015, she told BBC Radio 1 that she hadn’t “done anything proper yet” – this exciting new pop prospect gave a sumptuous performance of certainly an LP’s worth of songs already.

After DJ mates Shy Luv warmed things up, the 20-year-old Brit walked out to a roar of applause from a packed venue – a large, diverse mix of people who already seem to be very excited about this relatively new name, who’s rapidly been getting support from all the right people, something that was clear when she was named as one of the acts on the BBC Sound of 2016 longlist.

Starting the party with stomper ‘Bad Together’, the singer’s vocals soared from the very first chorus, with impressive power, and a timbre reminiscent of sand sifting through fingers. Three other as-yet unreleased tracks followed, each authentically catchy, focused, and damn danceable in their own right. She proceeded on the road of unheard but unbelievably decent tracks with ‘Want To’, where she teased, “I’ll dance if I want to…” letting the crowd know that they were in for one fun display of what this new kid on the block is capable of. This continued and strengthened with tracks such hit-in-the-making ‘Hotter Than Hell’, and the what-is-Holly-Valance-up-to-inspiring ‘Mwah’.

It was clear which of the songs the audience members knew already, as they contributed those extra few decibels during singles ‘New Love’ and ‘Last Dance’, and Jamie XX cover ‘Good Times’. But even for the songs they didn’t know, Dua and her band provided such solid performances that the crowd was with them every step of the way. For such a new act, Dua Lipa had no trouble keeping the audience with her as she returned for an encore, covering A$AP Rocky’s ‘L$D’, and finishing with her infectious staple ‘Be the One’.

At the closing of the show, Dua Lipa took a moment to stand there and take in the first of what is surely reems of headline shows to come. “This is the best night of my life. I just want to look at you all for as long as possible.” Despite being incredibly talented and very good at being a popstar already, she also seems genuinely humble and sweet. A complete breath of fresh air, she managed to command her audience throughout her performance, despite only being at the beginning of her promising pop career. Seemingly very cool, captivatingly very charming, and very, very good.

Visit soundcloud.com/dualipa for remixes and covers, and keep an eye out for her debut album, expected later this year.

Words: Georgios Hadjimichael

Review | Dua Lipa at Heaven: A lot of ‘New Love’ for this bright pop prospect

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