'Dark pop' princess on the rise

A FEW years ago, British singer-songwriter Dua Lipa was just another teenager posting Christina Aguilera covers on YouTube. Fast forward to 2017, and she has a handful of singles to her name, some of which have made it to Billboard's Hot 100 and feature collaborations with international names.

Last year, she released Blow Your Mind (Mwah), a catchy dance pop song that helped her break into the US market. Then in January this year, her name popped up in US charts again with EDM hit-maker Martin Garrix's song Scared To Be Lonely, which featured her distinctively deep and throaty vocals. The song also peaked at second place in several dance charts in Europe.

One of the songs on her debut, eponymous album, which will be released on June 2, will feature perhaps her most exciting collaboration yet - with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

"That was really exciting for me but also very scary - working with someone so inspiring and such an amazing artist and someone I've looked up to," the 21-year-old gushes during an interview at JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach earlier this month. She later performed five songs at an intimate showcase there.

"I feel very lucky to have worked with someone so big and so inspiring so early on in my career - and someone I've learnt a lot from."

As with most of her already-released songs, the upcoming album will revolve "a lot around love and loss and heartbreak", she shares. "I guess that's where I am right now and I feel like I owe it to myself and my fans to be as honest as possible and as much as an open book."

Lipa describes her music as "dark pop". Which, to her, means essentially pop songs with other influences such as hip hop.

"It's really about making a song you can dance to but also when you listen to the lyrics, you will find something that is quite heartfelt and sad," she explains, adding that it is sort of like "dance crying".

She notes: "I really admire the honesty and truthfulness in being able to talk about sad experiences and finding inspiration from darkness."

The daughter of a musician, Lipa was exposed to music from a young age. When her family moved from London to Kosovo in her early teens, she realised how much she missed performing (based on her experiences at theatre school which she had attended on weekends).

"I wanted to really pursue (music as a career) but there weren't enough opportunities there - and I couldn't do it on a global scale," she offers. "So I said to my parents I was going to go back to London at 15 and go back to theatre school and keep doing more music and post more covers.

"When I decided that I was going to move away from home so young ... That was a defining moment for me," she adds. "It was at that point where I realised I was the only person to go out there and get it and it helped me really set my intentions on my goal and not lose sight of that. And that is what I essentially did."