British singer Dua Lipa is scheduled to perform in Asia as part of her The Self-Titled tour in May.
The “Blow Your Mind” and “New Rules” crooner will stage live performances in Malaysia on May 3, Singapore on May 4, South Korea on May 6 and Japan on May 8. This will be Lipa’s first time performing in Malaysia and second time in Singapore.
Read also: Sheeran, Dua Lipa lead Brit Award nominations
I'm looking forward to seeing my loves in Korea this May! Pre-sale 12th Feb. General sale 14th Feb https://t.co/hv9OiVHVJX
I'll be announcing more Asia tour dates this month! Keep checking back xx pic.twitter.com/QT0ONNYhch — DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) February 6, 2018
There is still no news as to whether Lipa will return to Indonesia this year, however in early February she tweeted that she would announce more Asia tour dates this month, therefore fans should keep checking on her official social media accounts.
Lipa, who released her self-titled debut album last year, has been nominated in five categories at the 2018 Brit Awards, including British Artist Video of the Year and British Breakthrough Act. The awards ceremony will be held on Feb. 21. (wir/mut)
Dua Lipa and Stormzy, two of Britain’s most exciting breakthrough pop acts, have beaten much more experienced competitors to the top prizes at the ceremony at London’s O2 Arena.
Stormzy, AKA 24-year-old south London grime rapper Michael Omari, beat big names including Sheeran and Liam Gallagher in the best British male category, thanks to the piercing flow and emotive balladry showcased on his debut album Gang Signs and Prayer. That LP also won the most prestigious award of the night, British album of the year, again beating Sheeran as well as Rag’n’Bone Man, J Hus and Lipa.
Lipa may have lost in that category but picked up two other major awards: best British female and British breakthrough artist. The Kosovar Albanian pop singer has slogged her way to the top of the charts, emigrating to London alone as a teenager, working as a model and on the door of nightclub while she launched her music career. Her hit single New Rules reached a billion views on YouTube this week, and current single IDGAF is in its fourth week in the top five.
The Brit awards became the latest awards ceremony to show support and solidarity with the Time’s Up movement, with artists including Lipa, Ed Sheeran and Camila Cabello wearing white rose pins or carrying white roses to protest against sexual harassment in the entertainment industry.
Play Video 1:15 Brit awards 2018: Dua Lipa's speech after winning award for British female solo artist - video
Anne Marie, Ellie Goulding, Sam Smith, Rag’n’Bone Man and Rita Ora also made the gesture after the awards organisers invited attendees to don the pins, which were distributed before guests arrived on the red carpet.
Receiving the first award of the evening for best British female solo artist, Lipa thanked “every single female that’s been on this stage before me that has given girls like me - not just in the music industry but in society - something to look up to, and has allowed us to dream this big. Here’s to more women on these stages, more women winning awards, and more women taking over the world.”
The singer-songwriter Rag’n’Bone Man scored his third Brit award in his still-ascending career, as his earthy anthem Human won best British single. Last year he won the breakthrough award as well as the critics’ choice award – he performed at the ceremony with the 2018 winner of the latter prize, soul and R&B singer Jorja Smith.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rita Ora arrives for the 2018 Brit Awards at the O2 Arena. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA
Kendrick Lamar was voted best international male, following the incendiary politics and spiritual battles showcased on his blockbuster album Damn. He was a surprise performer on the night that also featured performances from Lipa, Sheeran, Stormzy, Justin Timberlake, Sam Smith, Rita Ora and Foo Fighters, who were awarded best international group – their fourth win in the category in their three-decade career. Lorde won best international female.
In a sombre segment, Liam Gallagher performed Oasis hit Live Forever in tribute to the victims of the Manchester arena bombing, after Ariana Grande pulled out earlier in the day due to sickness. Despite his telling the Guardian earlier this week the Brits could “fuck off if they think I’m going to go there and clap some fucking idiot”, it was a raw and poignant performance.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gorillaz win their first Brit award. Photograph: Balazs Mohai/EPA
Shortly thereafter, Gorillaz, the cartoon hip-hop band formed by Blur frontman Damon Albarn and illustrator Jamie Hewlett, finally picked up their first Brit award, having lost out nine times previously since they formed 20 years ago. Following the release of their album Humanz, they won best British group, beating the xx, Royal Blood, Wolf Alice and London Grammar.
Albarn said: “I’ve got one thing to say and it’s about this country. This country is, believe it or not, quite a small little thing. But it’s a lovely place, and it’s part of a beautiful voice. Don’t let it become isolated. Don’t let yourselves become cut off. Considering our size we do incredible things in music. We’ve got a real spirit and a real soul and don’t let politics get in the way of all that shit.”
Host Jack Whitehall then whispered: “I think they were talking about Brexit.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ed Sheeran won the global success award. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
The night will have been a disappointment for Ed Sheeran, who, despite releasing the biggest-selling album in the UK last year with ÷, missed out on wins in the biggest categories. He was, however, awarded the global success award, a non-nominated prize that recognises international commercial success by British artists. After not even being nominated for the major prizes at the Grammys earlier this year, it’s clear that the public’s adoration of the singer-songwriter isn’t currently matched by the industry figures who vote for awards.
All the wins and performances from the Brit awards 2018 – as they happened Read more
On the arena floor, the singer Jess Glynne told the Guardian: “I’m wearing a rose to show solidarity with the Time’s Up movement. Women in music should use their platform to help enact change because you’re a role model to so many people. We’ve all experienced sexism. In the past I’ve been shut down, not had my opinions listened to. So I would say to all young women stand for something and believe in yourself.”
The night was interspersed with political references. When Dermot O’Leary asked what was missing from this year’s ceremony, Emma Willis, presenting an award with him, replied “Female co-host?”
The evening ended with a performance by Stormzy, moments after winning British album of the year, in which he rapped: “Theresa May where’s that money for Grenfell?”
Full list of winners
British male solo artist: Stormzy
British female solo artist: Dua Lipa
British group: Gorillaz
Breakthrough artist: Dua Lipa
Global Success award: Ed Sheeran
British single: Rag’n’Bone Man – Human
British album: Stormzy – Gang Signs & Prayer
British video: Harry Styles – Sign of the Times
International male solo artist: Kendrick Lamar
International female solo artist: Lorde
International group: Foo Fighters
Critics’ Choice award: Jorja Smith
British producer: Steve Mac
Justin Timberlake
The last time Timberlake played the Brits was in 2013, he came promoting a critically derided new album with a handful of kick-ass singles, so this should feel like Groundhog Day. He comes primed for big-stage performance after his Super Bowl show a couple of weeks back, a pop mashup that was almost avant garde in its insane complexity (or maybe just a bit of a mess) – he didn’t actually seem to do much singing, choosing instead to make occasional personal trainer “hup!” noises and bounding around like a funky televangelist. So what do we have here?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Hup!’ … Justin Timberlake, right, performing with Chris Stapleton at the 2018 Brit awards. Photograph: James Gourley/Rex/Shutterstock
He begins here with Midnight Summer Jam, which takes Bruno Mars’s “shameless disco pastiche” baton and runs it into his own comfort zone – this is classic Timberlake: light, unthreateningly sexy and nimble of foot. He pulls the tempo down, triggers some live vocal samples (hey, people like it when Ed Sheeran uses his loop pedal, right?) before bringing on country star Chris Stapleton for their duet Say Something. This is the cornerstone of the plaid-wearing “woods” bits of his album Man of the Woods – and while the wheel remains very much round and turn-y, it’s sturdy and satisfyingly harmonised. As noted last year, during the 1975’s performance, soulful white performers will bring out a gospel choir at the Brits on a hair trigger and so it proves here, but it works. If this is going to be soulful, dignified, emotive Brits to match the Time’s Up protests, then it’s a good basis to build off.
Rag’n’Bone Man
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trojan bear … Rag’n’Bone Man at the 2018 Brit awards. Photograph: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
Last year’s Critics’ Choice award winner, Rag’n’Bone Man, duets with this year’s, Jorja Smith, in an autocratic vision of music industry synergy. After three years of reliably predicting which tremulously emotional white man would be clutched to the bosoms of Asda album buyers (Tom Odell, Sam Smith, James Bay), there was a wobble in 2016 when the tremulously emotional white man Jack Garratt became as culturally relevant as a blacked-up morris dancer. The Brits don’t want that to happen again, so the phenomenally successful Rag’n’Bone Man is being used as a kind of Trojan bear to smuggle Jorja Smith into the consciousness of the ITV faithful.
Rag’n’Bone Man begins with a very stark version of Skin, backed just by piano – a format that of course delivered major chills via Adele when she famously performed Someone Like You here in 2011. Smith arrives, and adds some hickory smoke to the campfire song. There’s some admirably delicate falsetto from Mr N Bone Man as a brass section swells behind him, flames lick up the set and a full band kicks in. Smith acquits herself well but certainly doesn’t upstage her Critics’ Choice forbear, who gives a typically robust performance. Makes you wonder, paired with that Justin performance: is this going to be the moodiest, woodsiest Brits ever?
Dua Lipa
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Supernova … Dua Lipa, front. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
A couple of years ago, there was a sense that Dua Lipa was like the word “fetch” in Mean Girls – ie just not going to happen. After her third single, Mwah, barely scraped the Top 30, I was sure I could hear knives being sharpened in the Warner Bros kitchens. But then Scared to be Lonely arrived, followed by New Rules, giving jilted lovers an entire mope-to-sass axis to work through, and she went supernova. Her aesthetic – as if the creative directors of Missguided, Pretty Little Thing and BooHoo teamed up Avengers-style to make the most zeitgeist-pretty look possible – helped.
She’s performing – what else? – New Rules, dressed like a sexy Moschino-coveting toreador and backed by a small army of female relationship advisers. She stalks her way through a series of neon-hued, no-fucks-given tableaux on the way to breakup nirvana, and, given the song trades in her stronger, deeper register, her performance is utterly assured. If this doesn’t win single of the year then we’re getting some placards made up.
Ed Sheeran
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nifty with a loop pedal … Sheeran performs at the Brit awards. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/Reuters
Britain’s biggest pop star continues to be a confounding figure, impossible to truly hate or love – he has more pros and cons than an oversubscribed prison. On the pro side: everyman charm, nifty with a loop pedal, Thinking Out Loud being actually a really nice choice for a first dance at a wedding, and Shape of You even though I never need to hear it again. On the con side: being a glamour vacuum, the creepiness of casting too-attractive women in his videos who definitely aren’t his childhood sweetheart, and a sense that he would make Balinese gamelan instrumentals if it meant he opened up a lucrative Balinese gamelan market and got the Balinese gamelan Christmas No 1. So which side does this performance of Supermarket Flowers fall?
Well, it’s a song about his dead nan, so not even this jaded hack can lay into him too much. It is a pretty rote ballad, but then again some of the best ballads are, and for every person that the “You were an angel in the shape of my mum” lyric nauseates, another will be reduced to helpless blubbing. And Sheeran’s detail (“John says he’d drive then put his hand on my cheek”) is the kind of thing that lifts up this from generic emotional manipulation. Not half as bold as his performance last year, but after selling as many albums as he has, he’s earned a little rest on his laurels.
Foo Fighters
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rawk gravitas … Foo Fighters performing at the Brits. Photograph: David Fisher/Rex/Shutterstock
Foo Fighters are a weird band to be playing, because despite them having won four Brits (including one tonight), gone many times platinum and being able to headline any festival on the planet (even some really weird electronic one because everyone ultimately quite likes Dave Grohl), they haven’t written a really big tune since The Pretender, and that was more than a decade ago. What are they even going to play?
The answer is The Sky is a Neighbourhood, performed in a recreation of the song’s video where the band perch atop a house – it was written after Dave Grohl watched a Neil deGrasse Tyson documentary and wanted to write a song about “when you look up at the night sky, you realise that you’re not only part of the universe, but the universe is part of us”. Stop hogging that reefer, Grohl! It’s big, chugging soulful blues-rock, but is it likely to ever break the top half of a best-of? Probs not, but they still bring a measure of rawk gravitas.
Liam Gallagher
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Perfect tribute … Liam Gallagher as the Brit awards. Photograph: David Fisher/Rex/Shutterstock
Ariana Grande was due to anchor a tribute to the victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack, but pulled out on doctor’s orders, so Liam Gallagher took her place. The same Liam Gallagher that told this paper earlier this week, re the Brits: “They can fuck off if they think I’m going to go there and clap some fucking idiot … Get down there with your little fucking suit on and put your arm around Stormzy and Rag’n’Bone Man, do all this bollocks? That ain’t me, mate.” Well, even Liam, whose ego has its own magnetic field, isn’t above swallowing those words for people from his home city.
The lyrics, of wanting to live and not wanting to die, are painfully poignant, especially set again a spartan acoustic backing. “Now is not the time to cry, now’s the time to find out why” – a fitting note of defiance, even political fervour, and of course the title lyric is wretchedly fitting: the people who lost their lives in Manchester will live forever in the minds of those who knew them. I can’t remember hearing such a raw, unadorned Liam Gallagher performance. He stalks off stage in classic loping style, having delivered a perfect, anti-sentimental tribute.
Sam Smith
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A little swagger … Sam Smith performing at the Brit awards. Photograph: David Fisher/Rex/Shutterstock
Singing through the feathers, he’s perhaps spitting at being rather overlooked here – though he is still, Rag’n’Bone Man-style, eligible for next year’s awards – Sam Smith delivers Too Good for Goodbyes. This is his masterpiece thus far – wryly catty at himself, his top line has the kind of circuitous, searching melody that returns with absolute logic to its starting point, perfectly clear-eyed in his own romantic self-destruction. His slight lisp is his secret timbral weapon, and he can’t help a little swagger as he strides out; on his own, marooned from his backing singers, he still manages to completely command this vast stage. He encourages the crowd to clap on beat, something I generally think destroys the song in question, but here he turns it into a far more powerful gospel moment than Justin Timberlake did with a massive choir earlier on. Underrated – though unlikely to be remembered amid the melee of next year’s pop.
Kendrick Lamar
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Another satire … Kendrick Lamar, top, performing at the Brits. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
Tonight’s surprise guests arrives amid a European tour that is frankly incredible, where vituperative broadsides against police brutality are paired with films of him achieving karmic alignment inside a glowing vagina. There seems to be a false start with his performance – and maybe a second and third one – as he begins a rendition of Feel lying above a Lamborghini in a glass case. Ironic wolf whistles sound around the arena, but it coheres eventually.
“This is another satire by Kendrick Lamar” reads the screen, as he segues into a performance of his verse from Rich the Kid’s New Freezer, with cheerleaders filing on to do the track’s viral dance craze. (If you want to do it at home, adopt the neck motion of an aggressively inquisitive, sass-talking ostrich and brace for the whiplash.) Inside the box, Rich the Kid smashes up the Lambo with a baseball bat. Well, what is it a satire of? The relentless covetousness of rap? Perhaps. Whatever it is, Kendrick just raised brows everywhere – those in the crowd, those watching at home, and the Brits as a whole from middle to high.
Rita Ora
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Head-rushing … Rita Ora, with Liam Payne, performing at the Brit awards. Photograph: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
There was a worry that thanks to spreading herself across TV, film and music, Rita Ora would never excel at any of them, and instead be mere eye candy for time-poor gossip columnists – a snack of all trades, if you will. But happily, she guested on the only good Avicii single ever, and released Anywhere, which is like a tropical house version of a forgotten Sound of Music song – ie pair it with a jug of woo-woo and all is well in the world.
She performs it after a brief blast of Your Song, dressed in a white tracksuit, perched on a pink geometric stage whose designer has just maybe, just maybe seen Solange’s live tour. Songs with choruses that don’t feature the singer doing any actual singing are a bit dangerous live, but Ora is enough of a pro by now to command the audience with a well-placed hair flick. Finally in the megamix is For You, her Fifty Shades duet with Liam Payne, which on paper is an economy-class version of Zayn and Taylor’s preceding soundtrack effort, on record is something Emeli Sandé rejected for being too Emeli Sandé, but at the Brits is surprisingly heartfelt and head-rushing. Maybe it’s the Kronenbourg I’m drinking at my desk? Her new single Proud, a return to her earlier, defiantly B-list roots, is rather conspicuous by its absence.
Stormzy
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pure energy … Stormzy is the final performer at this year’s Brit awards. Photograph: David Fisher/Rex/Shutterstock
Last year, he debuted the really rather good Shape of You remix with Ed Sheeran. This year, it’s time for the man they call The Problem, Stiff Chocolate, Wicked Skengman, or – if you’re even a little bit white – just plain Stormzy, to take to the stage himself. He does so under pouring rain to deliver Blinded By Your Grace Pt 2, backed by a gospel choir – the second of the evening! Stormzy’s though, dressed in the balaclavas of his album cover, is just that little bit gnarlier than Justin Timberlake’s.
Then comes perhaps the most electric segment of the entire show, as he strips off his soaked top and delivers a freestyle that both revels in “black girl magic” and Daniel Kaluuya’s Bafta win, and savages the Daily Mail and Theresa May over Grenfell. He swings the anger into a ferocious Big for Your Boots, stalking around the stage with pent-up rage bursting out in kettle-whistles of steam, rounding off the Brits with a blast of pure energy.
Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, Zara Larsson, MØ & Alma Perform 'IDGAF': Watch
While stopping by the BBC Live Lounge last week, Dua Lipa sang a haunting cover of the Arctic Monkey's "Do I Wanna Know?" and her mega-hot "New Rules." But the singer also enlisted help from some of her fellow pop favorites Charli XCX, Zara Larsson, MØ, and Alma for an all-star collab.
The ladies performed an epic rendition of Lipa’s breakup anthem “IDGAF,” the latest single from her 2017 debut album. The supergroup perfectly harmonized the girl-power lyrics, and added their own little dance moves.
Check out the performance below.
