In an interview, which debuted last night on The Zach Sang Show on The Amazon Music channel on Twitch, Dua Lipa discusses how she wrote 97 songs for this album in a single notebook, the meaning behind the term “radical optimism,” the first song she fully finished, what it’s like to prepare for a show, her songwriting process and much more.
Dua Lipa on what Radical Optimism means:
“Radical Optimism just became more prevalent and everything I was writing had an optimistic flair. I have this belief that what I write and what I sing almost becomes a manifestation because I say it all the time. So, it’s a mantra and becomes a repetitive thing. So as long as I’m putting in something positive and for everyone who’s listening and signing it, if I can inject some optimism, some positively and fun and light to whatever we’re feeling, then I am being of service in some way … I’m trying to be a radical optimist … I think putting things into writing is powerful. You got to ask for what you want”
Dua Lipa on her creative process of the album and when to step away:
“There were moments where we went back and I pretty much rewrote every single song a couple of times until it was right. I think ‘End of an Era’ we went through quite a few verses and we changed a bit of that. We starting writing ‘End of an Era,’ we started on the production and we started writing melodies, and I was like ‘this isn’t right, this isn’t right’ … so I called off that session. We are going to leave Kevin [Parker] and Danny [L Harle of PC Music] to work on the track for the day, and we’re going to leave because I feel like we’re getting writers block and hitting a wall … It just didn’t feel right, so we left and came back the next day and heard the track with fresh ears and we were ready. It just gave us a whole new lease on energy.”
Dua Lipa on how she knew they were on the right track with the songs:
“’Illusion’ was the first song. It was the first sessions that we did five verses and it just clicked. It was at that moment where we were like okay ‘I think we’re onto something now.’ Because right after that, it was the day after that we wrote ‘Happy for You,’ and the day after that we wrote ‘Whatcha Doing,’ and it was in one week we wrote three songs that ended up on the record. We were just on this roll. There was just an energy shift and we all felt like we were working towards something. And we had a very clear idea of where we were going and that was into this psychedelic world that was very vulnerable and honest at the same time. But very organic in terms of the musicality of it, at the same time dancey and personal.”
Dua Lipa on how many songs she wrote for the album
“Then I kind of just started writing songs. 97 to be precise. Which is actually funny because one of my dancers, Lamaar [Manning], we were doing reversals for The Brits and he’s like, ‘it’s crazy that you wrote 97 songs because we did 97 shows when we were touring in 2022’ and I didn’t realize that. I was like what does that mean?”
