Dua Lipa’s Unplanned, Uncertain, Unprecedented Album Launch
The English pop star spent years preparing to release her anticipated second LP, “Future Nostalgia.” Should she — and could she — do it during a pandemic?
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Dua Lipa looked away from the camera and covered her face with a manicured hand. “I really didn’t want to do this,” she half-whispered. She failed to muffle a major sniffle.
It was shortly after 10 a.m. Monday of the last full week in March, and the usually composed 24-year-old English pop star was not on her way to New York to rehearse for her scheduled appearance on “Saturday Night Live” that coming weekend. She was not at a photo shoot, in a radio studio or any of the other places an artist preparing to release her much-anticipated second album might be.
She was in coronavirus self-quarantine in London, addressing her fans live on Instagram for only the second time. “I’ve been a little bit conflicted about putting music out and you know, whether it’s the right thing to do during this time because lots of people are suffering,” she had explained as she teared up. The album was due in 11 days.
Lipa quickly composed herself and spoke about how she had avoided focusing on the pressures that come with making a buzzed-about second album — like the specter of the sophomore slump, a fate that could extinguish a budding career — by assembling a dancey, upbeat LP that made her feel good. She hoped that the album, “Future Nostalgia,” would bring her fans a bit of joy at a very uncertain time. Oh, and it would now be out in four days.
Pop album launches are like Fourth of July fireworks shows: highly choreographed affairs with dozens of carefully timed parts threatening to detonate at any moment. For a powerhouse young artist like Lipa, a flawlessly executed second album could determine whether she’d secure her path to career stardom, like Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, or join the ranks of hopefuls whose fame slipped away. After teeing up “Future Nostalgia” with years of preparation — built on the success of her 2017 platinum debut album, six platinum singles and hundreds of performances around the globe — Lipa and her team suddenly realized a few cannons hadn’t simply misfired; their entire barge was in danger of sinking.
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