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Dua Lipa: Tiny Desk Concert

When Dua Lipa came to visit the Tiny Desk, she had nothing to prove — and much to live up to. After all, the singer’s Tiny Desk (home) concert, recorded in London in the aftermath of her 2020 blockbuster Future Nostalgia, still holds the record for the most-viewed Tiny Desk concert in history, her 130 million views surpassing even the likes of Mac Miller and Anderson .Paak.

Four years later, the pop superstar finally graced the actual Tiny Desk, this time armed with four warm and inviting songs from Radical Optimism. Arriving in the first half of this year — when the dominant storylines in music so often revolved around grievances and rivalries — Radical Optimism stood out for its comparatively sunny and forgiving takes on failed and failing relationships, seduction, new love and old wounds. And, of course, it dispensed a world-beating banger in “Houdini,” which joins past Dua Lipa classics (“New Rules,” “Levitating,” “Don’t Start Now”) on her own personal Mount Rushmore.

Befitting an artist whose newest songs often reflect the pursuit of personal growth — see: “Happy for You” — Lipa and her team breezed through the NPR Music offices with a mix of low-drama professionalism and unmistakable warmth. We’ve dealt with a lot of stars (and their teams) over the years, and as often as people ask us to dish about people who’ve been difficult, we’ve mostly accumulated stories of people who’ve been lovely to have around. Even among all those, Lipa and her people stood out: They were kind, gracious, fun and game.

That shows up on camera, too, as you’ll see here. This is joyful music, at a time when we could all use it.

SET LIST

  • “Training Season”
  • “These Walls”
  • “Happy for You”
  • “Houdini”

MUSICIANS

  • Dua Lipa: vocals
  • Matthew Carroll: bass
  • Adam "Smiley" Wade: drums
  • Alex Lanyon: guitar
  • Georgie Ward: keys
  • Ciara O’Connor: vocals
  • Naomi Scarlett: vocals
  • Sophie Galpin: glockenspiel, vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

  • Producers: Bobby Carter, Stephen Thompson
  • Director/Editor: Kara Frame
  • Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
  • Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
  • Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Alanté Serene
  • Audio Engineer: Tiffany Vera Castro
  • Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
  • Photographer: Grace Widyatmadja
  • Tiny Desk Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
  • Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
  • Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
  • VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

Copyright 2024 NPR

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)