New Love, Don’t Start Now and Houdini: Dua Lipa’s lead singles ranked

DL3! Is! Coming! Following the gargantuan success of Barbie’s dance-pop smasher ‘Dance the Night’, which became Dua Lipa’s fourth British chart-topper and received two Grammy nods – just FYI – the star has finally blessed her fans (the Dua Lipan’s? the Dula Peeps?) with her third era. Due for release in 2024, the album will follow her 2017 self-titled debut and Future Nostalgia (2020), both of which are the most-streamed albums by a female artist on Spotify. One of the most acclaimed albums of the 21st century, the latter’s singles – ‘Don’t Start Now’, ‘Physical’, ‘Break My Heart’, ‘Levitating’ and so forth – were responsible for the industry’s long-awaited disco revival and for cementing Dua’s status as the pop star of her generation. (The stats are necessary to include because, really, who’s doing it like our world-travelling pop queen?) As we patiently await DL3, we’ve ranked all of Dua’s lead singles (so far). There’s only three, so don’t expect a long read.

3. ‘New Love’ (2017, Dua Lipa)

Dua’s debut single and the lead from her self-titled debut album, ‘New Love’ is wildly underrated in her banger-filled discography. Failing to attain a chart peak in any country (sacrilege!), the synthpop, neo-soul and R&B hybrid is assisted by a thumping, tribal beat that works in perfect tandem with Dua’s haunting powerhouse vocals. Has she ever sounded better than she does here? It feels despicable to rank ‘New Love’ in last place, but this is a straw-clutching situation so we’re blaming the low budget video and overall lack of impact. She didn’t even perform it on the Future Nostalgia Tour. RIP.

2. ‘Houdini’ (2023, TBA)

As of writing, we’re unsure if this is actually worthy of the top spot – because Dua’s clearly laced the track with some crack – but we won’t allow recency bias to corrupt us. The lead single from Dua’s forthcoming third album, ‘Houdini’ sees the star switch up the disco stylings of Future Nostalgia for a more electronica, neo-psychedelia sound. Produced by Danny L Harle and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Dua uses the modern day act of ghosting to reference the titular Hungarian-American escape artist (we stan an intelligent diva), singing: “I come and I go, tell me all the ways you need me. I’m not here for long, catch me or I go Houdini.” Although Dua has, for some time now, been the star the industry needs and deserves, the accompanying video sees her achieve her full potential as a pop star with a choreo-heavy routine and a squad of attractive male dancers. Bring on DL3.