View as: GRID LIST
Dua Lipa GAF, The Brits 2018
Dear Dinner Party DJ
I’ve reserved a space on our couch next Wednesday night for an evening in with my kids watching the Brits and scoffing pizza. Trouble is, apart from Ed Sheeran, I’ve not really got a clue who’s going to be on.
Well, you’re in luck, Ed Sheeran has been nominated for four awards and is due to perform alongside most of the nominees as well as the Foo Fighters and Justin Timberlake.
Maybe, like me, you’ve grown up with the Brits watching it for over 30 years and remember that excruciating evening when Sam
I love The Brits! It’s a real celebration of British pop and what people are listening to right now. And right now, despite what some critics might say, most people are listening to Ed Sheeran so he’s likely to have a big night.
Really though, you need to know about Dua Lipa who has already made history as far as the Brits are concerned. She has been nominated for five
Best British Female
“Lipa might be a pop star but she carries herself with the bravado and charisma of the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.”
—
22-year-old Dua (who needs a stage name with a name like that?!) was born in London to Albanian parents from Kosovo. She started out at the Sylvia Young Theatre School before her parents took her back to their homeland. But at the age of 15, Dua, who had always wanted to be a singer, decided she wanted to come back to London and focus on music. She studied full time at Sylvia Young, singing along to YouTube videos and began posting covers of her favourite pop songs including Jessie J and Joss Stone before ”determination took her from
If you haven’t heard her sing yet, it’s the quality of her voice that sets her apart from her contemporaries. Her voice has been compared to Amy Winehouse and Joss Stone. The NME described her voice as carrying a ”20-a-day raspiness capable of making heartfelt ballads sound edgy”, her vocals are distinctively smoky and sultry. Listen to her cover of The Arctic Monkeys song ’Do I Wanna Know’ in the Radio 1 Live Lounge this week and you’ll hear how amazing her voice is when just
2017 was pretty massive for Dua Lipa, at the start of the year she won Best New Artist at the NME Awards and was described by them as ”the real deal”. Her long-awaited album was released, she was the most streamed female of 2017 and the youngest artist to hit a billion views on YouTube for her music video of ’New Rules’.
In this category she’s up against Jessie Ware, Kate Tempest, Laura Marking and Paloma Faith, surely this one’s in the bag?!
British Single of the Year –
Lipa released ’Be The One’ as her debut single in 2015 and a string of hits followed including ’Hotter Than Hell’ before ’New Rules’ stormed the charts around the globe and became one of the big tunes of summer 2017. It was an infectious smash hit for Dua who has described her music as ”dark pop” saying that “all the sad things that happen are the things that linger on my mind the longest, the things that I feel like I want to write about. But then at the same time, I like dancing to it.” I think this song is a perfect example of
In this category, Dua is up against the record-breaking, infectious ’Shape of You’ by Ed Sheeran which was the best selling song of 2017 and the most streamed song on Spotify that
British Artist Video of the Year – New Rules
“The dopest video I’ve seen in ages”
— LORDE
It was the knockout video for this song that was a major part of its appeal. It’s a cool, colour coordinated video with girlfriends hanging out at a sleepover looking after each other and who all have each other’s backs. It went viral after Lorde and Camila Cabello tweeted about it and its powerful statement. It was this video
She’s up against Sheeran again as well as yet another raunchy video from Little Mix and three former bandmates from One Direction.
Mastercard British Album – Dua Lipa
“No dull moments, not a whiff of boring, just bangers.”
— THE NME
Her self-titled debut album was a long time coming having been delayed three times but this didn’t seem to have any negative effects as sales reached over 1 million
This category is the biggy of the Brits. Other contenders include Ed Sheeran’s ’Divide’which the NME described as ”kind of weird”, The ’Bouf Daddy’ J Hus’s genre-hopping ’Common Sense’, Stormzy’s ”multi-faceted masterpiece” (The Independent), ’Gang Signs and Prayers’ and Rag n’Bone Man’s ’Human’ described by The Guardian as ”a triumph
British Breakthrough Act
So this is the category you can vote for, what do you think? Have I done enough to convince you that Dua Lipa is ’the real deal’ or do you think the award should go to Dave, J Hus or Loyle Carner from the world of hip-hop that is so big right now or even to Sampha, the Mercury Prize winner from last year and who featured in the top 20 most acclaimed albums of last year?
Roll on Wednesday and that pizza, it’s a shame that Dua will be busy or she could have
.
MARY THAINFEBRUARY 16, 2018