The first time Dua Lipa went clubbing, she was just a wisp of a tween girl in Kosovo. The UK-born pop star realizes how absurd it sounds as she explains it. Seated in her home office in London, flanked by shelves teeming with books, she thumbs through her phone for a blurry image of a photo from that fateful night—as if to prove to the two of us that it did indeed happen. At the center of the photo is a young Lipa dressed in white crochet, smiling brightly next to her much taller cousin and an entourage of stylish women.
Clubbing is a Lipa family tradition; it’s also why she wasn’t fazed when, while out one night on New York City’s Lower East Side with Charli XCX, she ran into her parents partying at The Box. “We celebrate everything and anything, and we just love a party,” she explains. “When I go to my aunt’s house, it all starts off pretty tame....Then the music comes on, and we’re all dancing in the house. And that’s a Tuesday!”
Now 28, Lipa has since made a name for herself as Britain’s leading lady of disco. On the dance floor, she plays an almighty oracle, a savvy young agony aunt for lovelorn club kids, desperate for the sobering real talk she’s dispensed in hits like “New Rules” and “Don’t Start Now.”
