Dua Lipa breaks internet by announcing new single Houdini: ‘Pop music is so back’
Dua Lipa is back with new single Houdini. (Warner)
British pop chart-topper Dua Lipa has revealed that her comeback single, “Houdini”, will be released next Friday (9 November).
Dua’s announcement comes after weeks of the 28-year-old star teasing her return to music, three-and-a-half year after the release of her last studio album, 2020’s Future Nostalgia.
Last month, the “Don’t Start Now” hitmaker wiped her social media pages clean of old content and replaced her profile pictures with new kaleidoscopic visuals.
On Instagram in late October, she posted a photo of herself with red hair alongside the caption: “Miss me?”
Days later, she deleted the photo, before uploading a second image of herself biting a key – an image that fans have since compared to Kate Bush’s 1982 album, The Dreaming.
Dua also posted, then deleted, a short video clip featuring the lyric “Catch me or I go” over a dancepop beat, and a numerical code which fans were quick to work out meant “Houdini”.
On The Dreaming, Bush also has a track called “Houdini”, though Dua has not commented on whether there is any link.
Harry Houdini was a Hungarian-American escape artist and stunt performer who could famously break free from being locked up in almost any situation, including from handcuffs, ropes, and straitjackets.
Yesterday, Dua Lipa confirmed her new single is called “Houdini”, and shared the cover art – which features the singer looking in a mirror and licking her own reflection.
Fans are, unsurprisingly, overwhelmed at the prospect of new Dua music on the horizon.
Dua’s second and most recent studio album Future Nostalgia was released in March 2020, just days after the UK went into its first Covid-19 lockdown. The record won the “Best Pop Vocal Album” at the 2021 Grammy Awards and was widely considered one of the best albums of the year.
Since releasing Future Nostalgia, Dua has released a number one single with Elton John, “Cold Heart”, started a podcast, Dua Lipa: At Your Service, and starred alongside Margot Robbie in Barbie.
Though there is no release date for Dua’s third album, she’s previously explained that while it’s “more personal” than the first two, it won’t “alienate” her fanbase.
“The album is different – it’s still pop but it’s different sonically, and there’s more of a lyrical theme,” she explained to The New York Times Style Magazine.
