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Award-winning singer Dua Lipa was present at the Hay Festival on Sunday. The “Levitating” singer wowed the audience by being open about how “persistence” had led to her success.
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“From a young age, I had the dream to be a pop star but it never seemed like something that was actually possible,” she told the audience as reported by BBC.
She said that her flexibility had helped because she had grown up moving between London and her parents’ home Kosovo.
“I’ve been a new girl all my life,” Dua Lipa said.
Lipa was born in London after her parents fled the war in the former Yugoslavia and returned to Kosovo with them when she was 11 years old. She returned to the UK when she was 15 to complete her GCSEs and pursue a career in music.
“People would always ask where my name is from. I was really proud of it, but when I was younger I wished my name was, say, Hannah — something ‘normal’ and English.”
The track list for “Barbie the Album” includes Lipa as well as Lizzo, Ice Spice, Haim, and Nicki Minaj. Her disco-influenced song, “Dance the Night Away,” served as the soundtrack’s debut single.