Dua Lipa splashed onto the U.S. scene in 2017 with her hit single, “New Rules.” In the music video, she danced alongside several other young ladies in pastel, singing about getting over a guy. The song was pretty darn catchy, but few predicted Dua Lipa’s meteoric rise since then. Nowadays, Dua Lipa’s face is splattered across television screens everywhere, promoting Jaguar and Yves Saint Laurent; “One Kiss” is playing in every club around the world; and every bookstore has countless magazines featuring her as their cover feature.
Dua Lipa has exploded, and it almost seems as though it happened overnight. Starting as more of an international star, Dua Lipa actually had a pretty slow climb upwards. She worked incredibly hard to afford every opportunity given to her and, today, stands on the success of all her sacrifices. Let’s take a good look at Dua Lipa’s tough—and ultimately amazing—journey.
15 Albanian Background
Dua Lipa is Albanian! Her parents left Kosovo for London, where Dua Lipa was born. Therefore, she’s also a Brit. Her background definitely accounts for her dark, interesting features and amazing accent. She also has a little sister and brother who must be very proud of their successful older sister!
14 Kosovo Calling
After living in London for a few years, Dua Lipa and her family moved back to Kosovo so that her father could pursue a job opportunity. Surely, Dua Lipa must’ve been devastated, as London was all she knew. However, she maintained her remarkable creative streak even while living in Kosovo.
13 Hip-Hop Fan
As a young teenager, Dua Lipa knew she wanted to be a famous singer. She filled her life with music and worked hard to perfect her songwriting craft. Hip-hop actually influenced a lot of Dua Lipa’s music, as most of her songs incorporate soulful vocals with heavy, electronic, dance beats.
12 Young And On YouTube
As Dua Lipa grew stronger in singing and songwriting, she started posting videos of herself on YouTube. By the green age of 14, Dua Lipa was covering songs like “I Would Rather Go Blind” by Etta James—showing she most definitely had an old soul (and an incredible vocal range).
11 Hard Worker
Posting videos on YouTube could only sustain Dua Lipa for a little while. Therefore, she moved back to London, alone, to live with a friend and get her career moving. Dua worked as a hostess in nightclubs and restaurants to pay for music sessions—never losing sight of her goal.
10 Model Citizen
Upon realizing that nightclubs weren’t really giving her a leg up in the music biz, Dua decided to become an ASOS model. She figured it was the best way to network and meet “the right people.” However, she left, abruptly, after the agents told her to lose weight for jobs.
9 X-Factor
As Dua Lipa struggled to achieve fame, she stumbled across a role for the “girl next door” in an X-Factor commercial. X-Factor was a very popular show at the time; and no one knew who Dua Lipa was at this point. Therefore, the advertisement must’ve been super exciting for her!
8 Dua Lipa!
Dua’s hard work finally paid off! Her YouTube videos garnered a lot of attention, so she was finally able to get a music manager and record deal with Warner Bros. Records. This ushered in her self-titled album, Dua Lipa, which hit the stores in 2017 and became a huge hit.
7 New Rules
“New Rules” was a single from Dua Lipa, and it ended up being her best-selling single, to date. The lyrics included a list of rules for getting over an ex-boyfriend, and its music video featured a group of “friends,” dressed in pastels, trying to help Dua get over the jerk.
6 Overachiever
For the 2018 Brit Awards, Dua Lipa dressed up in the cutest, fluffiest, pink gown, ever, and celebrated the fact that she was nominated for five different categories—more than any other artist that year. She even ended up winning Best Female Solo Artist and Best New Artist. Congratulations, Dua!
5 Jaguar Lady
From nightclub hostess, to award-winning singer, to the face of Jaguar! Of course, the historic British car company chose the coolest, most popular British singer to represent its fresh, new I-PACE electric car. Dua Lipa and Jaguar even collaborated to create the most remixed song in history for the campaign.
4 Libre Woman
A star just isn’t a star until she’s the face of a designer brand, right? Well, Dua Lipa is officially a star, then! She was chosen to be the face of Yves Saint Laurent’s Libre fragrance; and “libre” is definitely the perfect word to describe this passionate, fiercely independent woman.
3 Hangin' With The Cool Kids
Once anyone reaches a certain level of prestige in “the biz,” famous friends and models start flocking. Gigi and Bella Hadid are two of the world’s most famous supermodels, so it only makes sense that they’ve befriended the incredibly popular Dua Lipa—likely at some fabulous party or fashion show.
2 Amour With Anwar
Friends aren’t all that came with Dua Lipa’s fame; she also found love—with Gigi’s and Bella’s younger brother, no less! Apparently, Anwar Hadid slid into Dua’s DMs and asked her out; and the two have been inseparable ever since. They even hang out with each other’s family quite frequently.
1 En Vogue
Dua’s not only friends with models. She is one! Dua starred in a fake 90s sitcom for Vogue, modeling several fabulous dresses and pouting her way through dinner. The hilarious short also showed how great of an actress Dua is—feigning confusion, clumsiness, and annoyance all within a few minutes.