Dua Lipa
United Kingdom, 2015–now
English-Albanian singer (b. 1995). Her second album Future Nostalgia (2020) — 'Don't Start Now', 'Levitating' — revived string-driven disco and dance-pop for a new generation, making her one of the biggest pop stars of the early 2020s.
MusicRoots documents 8 artists who influenced Dua Lipa and 0 artists Dua Lipa influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Dua Lipa?
- Kylie Minogue — Dua Lipa's nu-disco revival on Future Nostalgia follows the glossy dance-pop path Kylie Minogue had long defined, and Dua has cited her as an influence.
- Madonna — Dua Lipa's dance-pop, and Future Nostalgia's disco revival in particular, draws on Madonna — 'Don't Start Now' was widely likened to Madonna's 'Hung Up'.
- Chic — The string-and-bass groove of Future Nostalgia revives Chic's disco sound — Nile Rodgers even features on the album.
- Nelly Furtado — One of the two records she got at six and calls a significant part of her life. The half-sung, half-rhythmic phrasing on Future Nostalgia is closer to Furtado than to any of the disco it borrows from.
- P!nk — The other one. M!ssundaztood is a pop singer refusing to make the record she was signed to make, which is roughly what Lipa did on her second album too.
- Destiny's Child — Named among the pop she grew up on, and the source of the stacked, clipped backing vocals all over Future Nostalgia.
- David Bowie — Her father's records rather than her own — Dukagjin Lipa sang in the Kosovar rock band Oda — and she has said she loved that music because she sang it in the car with him.
- Radiohead — From the same car journeys. It explains a melancholy in her ballads that the disco records do not account for.