Dua Lipa dials up the disco escapism at pulsating O2 Arena show

When she was at primary school, Dua Lipa was told she couldn’t sing because she wasn’t able to hit the high notes. As blunders go, this might not rank with The Beatles being turned down by Decca, but it’s still pretty glaring — London-born Lipa, 26, is now one of the world’s most successful pop stars.

Her debut album Dua Lipa set her on her way in 2017 with a clutch of hit singles; she was the year’s best-selling female artist in the UK. Its follow-up, Future Nostalgia, came out in 2020, a boldly conceived exercise in disco escapism that arrived at the precise moment when Covid lockdowns made escaping to actual discos impossible. The chord it struck was bright, resonant and upbeat. Even greater commercial success ensued, including cracking the US, a holy grail for the UK music industry.

Delayed by the pandemic, her Future Nostalgia tour was supposed to take place last year. It marks her arrival on the arena circuit, playing the kind of enormodomes where seating stretches up into the darkness and stagings are required to have the pizzazz of a Las Vegas spectacular. At the O2 Arena, for the first of two nights, she marvelled at the proportions of the 20,000-capacity venue and spoke of suffering an adrenaline headache earlier in the day. But her performance proved nerveless.

She made her entry in the customary style of an arena-pop deity, rising all of a sudden from below the stage on a hydraulic platform, outfitted in an outré pink catsuit. A similarly clad troupe of dancers were arranged around her. A backing band and four singers stood on opposite sides of the stage. A catwalk led out to another stage in the centre of the cavernous space.

The first song was “Physical”, a pulsating aerobics number with a big 1980s feel, not far from the full Flashdance effect. “We created something phenomenal, don’t you agree?” Lipa sang. The music did indeed have a winning air. It was propulsive and supple-sounding, an act of dancefloor classicism rather than copyism.

Mostly drawn from Future Nostalgia, the setlist lasted a compact 90 minutes. None of it was wasted. Interludes for costume changes were made diverting by routines from roller-skating dancers or from the backing singers. With the well-sung exception of “Boys Will Be Boys”, a power ballad about misogyny, Lipa kept the messaging focused on having a good time. The pacing was brisk. Production values were impressive, with a snappy light show and visuals.

There weren’t many high notes in her singing. In “Fever”, a slinky duet with support act Angèle, she adopted a breathy tone effectively. But she sounded most comfortable using a strong lower-register voice, belting out her vocals without lapsing into needless frippery. It was a performance of energy and vibrancy, the dauntless act of a singer laying claim to the biggest stages.

★★★★☆

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