Review: Dua Lipa at the Olympia Theatre

The golden ticketholders, mainly teenage girls and twenty-something women, cram into the venue in high spirits. By the time support act Lxandra finishes her set, the crowd are rearing to go, roaring along with chart hits pumped through the speakers to fill the space between support act and the main attraction.

Dua Lipa, her given name, takes to the stage in an Olympia Theatre packed to the rafters, sporting a leaden-blue bra, navy trousers ruched at the waist,and a half black half white blazer with her sleek hair newly cropped into a mod bob.

Launching straight into ‘Blow your mind (MWAH)’, Lipa starts as she means to continue, cranking the energy full-throttle, flanked by a full band, back up dancers and tropical visuals flashing across a screen behind her.

Back in December, Lipa told Billboard, “I can’t dance. If I try, I’ll trip onstage”. It seems this hesitancy has been assuaged – the set is remarkably high energy and synchronised choreography shifts from pirouettes to twerking with assurance. ‘Dreams’, ‘No Lie’, ‘Be The One’, ‘High”,‘My Love’ and ‘Lost in Your Light’, are fast-tempo and buoyant, showcasing the unexpectedly satisfying contrast between Lipa’s deep dark voice and tropical house drum and horn instrumentation.

Music runs in Lipa’s blood, as her father Dukagjin Lipa is a rock singer in his native Kosovo, which influenced her to pursue a career in music. This genetic predisposition may be part of the reason she seems so totally unflappable as a musician and performer. It’s easy to forget that at just 22, Lipa is a peer to many in the audience; such is her ease in front of a crowd.

With the setlist, Lipa proves she is no one tricky pony churning out feel-good music. ‘Scared to be Lonely’, ‘Homesick’ ‘New Love’ ‘No Goodbyes’, and ‘Thinking Bout You’ strike a solemn chord and provide a break from the frenzied dance routines, allowing Lipa once again to hypnotise the crowd with her voice.

‘Garden’, ‘Last Dance’, ‘Be the One’ and ‘Genesis’, the first track on her eponymous album, keep the fans dancing and singing along. In the midst of the chaos, a dancer writhes on top of a baby grand piano, Lipa performs a mini tribute to Michael Jackson, and hops atop of an amp to belt out some hits.

Lipa boosts the energy again for the last two songs of the set, ‘Bad Together’ and ‘Hot like Hell’, stoking the fire that’s been burning all evening. The crowd know what the encore songs will be, and they can hardly contain their excitement.

The first song of the encore is preceded by a flashing content warning on screen behind the stage, reading “this song is not for f*ckboys who have done you wrong.” This is in itself the essence of Dua Lipa’s mass appeal. Everyone in the crowd has a story of being slighted by someone they love, meaning it’s intensely relatable, personal to each individual. After the warning, it’s no surprise then, that what follows is IDGAF, Lipa’s most recent release which reached top spot in Irish charts. Freshly changed into a powder blue blazer, Lipa twirls from one end of the stage to another, back up dancers perfectly in step.

Lipa’s most commercially successfully song and tour de force ‘New Rules’ - a guide to not getting back with an ex boyfriend - almost takes the roof off the building. Confetti rains from the ceiling as Lipa urges the crowd, once, twice, three times ‘don’t pick up the phone and they are in the palm of her hand.

Lipa’s interactions with the audience are minimal, but in this case it’s not detrimental. Fans don’t go to Dua Lipa for long self-indulgent monologues, they go for a bop to upbeat and empowering songs, and that is what Lipa provides, in spades.