Dua Lipa's regret over her name and what she wanted to be called

Born in London during an intense summer heatwave, Dua entered the world on 22 August 1995. Her Kosovan-Albanian parents, Dukagjin and Anesa Lipa, had fled the city of Pristina due to the Bosnian war, arriving in Camden as refugees in 1992.

Her dad, now 56, had been studying dentistry and her mum, 52, was training to be a lawyer, but once in the UK Dukagjin retrained in marketing and Anesa in tourism. They also took restaurant jobs to make ends meet, with Dua saying, “They had to work very hard, waiting tables and studying in the evening and believing you make your own luck.”

Her unusual name was her grandmother’s suggestion, meaning “love” in Albanian. But she was not always keen on it, saying, “I was really proud of it, but when I was younger I wished my name was, say, Hannah – something ‘normal’ and English.”

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She grew up with brother Gjin, now 19, and sister Rina, 24, and her early love of singing was unsurprising as their dad – known as ‘Dugi’ – was once a long-haired rocker in a Kosovan band called Oda. “Music was always played around the house, so it just always kind of had a big impact on me,” she said.

After penning her first song aged around five, she began cello lessons at Fitzjohn’s Primary School but struggled as she was so small. “I would be carrying this massive cello on my back and it would either whack me on the top of my head or the backs of my legs. It was a real health hazard. So I gave it up.” Then, her attempts to join the school choir were thwarted “because I couldn’t reach the high notes”.

As music journalist John Earls tells us, “She was rejected for having too deep a voice, but of course, her distinctive tone is a key part of her appeal today. Her teachers must still kick themselves, but nobody knew she’d go on to become an international superstar.”

In 2006, when Dua was 11, the family went back to Kosovo. She recalls, “I was returning to a place where I almost already felt I belonged. It was really exciting for me.” But with few opportunities to further her musical ambitions, she begged her parents to let her return to London without them in 2010, at just 15.

“To have that belief in your talent and to move to London from another country as a teenager on your own is so impressive,” says music writer Matt Charlton. “When I interviewed her, Dua told me she had no plan B, and maybe that’s how it has to be if your sights are set on the top.”

Back in Camden, she lived with a family friend, and though it was hard to be apart from her family, Dua vowed not to let them down.

“I am very close to my parents, who put a lot of trust in me, so I was as good as possible,” she said on The Graham Norton Show last February.

It was a steep learning curve, though, with chores like laundry presenting some challenges. “I’d take my clothes, stuff them in a cupboard and buy new ones until my mum came over.”

Dua attended Parliament Hill School, and after completing her GCSEs she took A-Levels in Politics, Psychology, English and Media Studies. She also took weekend classes at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, whose alumni include the late Amy Winehouse and actresses Billie Piper and Keeley Hawes. “When I started at Sylvia Young, my teacher there told me, ‘You can sing, and don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do,’” she said. Sylvia herself said of her pupil, “She was always driven and had a phenomenal work ethic. She would not sit back and wait for things. We knew she was very intelligent and would be successful in anything she did.”

As well as writing her own songs, on YouTube, Dua regularly posted covers of tracks by P!nk, Alicia Keys and Nelly Furtado, whose album Whoa, Nelly! was the first she owned. “I remember knowing every single one of the lyrics on that album,” she has previously said. “I was obsessed.”

As well as taking part-time modelling work to help pay the bills, she began waitressing in her late teens. “I worked at La Bodega Negra, a Mexican restaurant that looked like a sex shop,” she joked. “I’d finish work, then go out to whatever nightclub was happening until, like, three in the morning.”

A big break came in 2013, when she sung Lost In Music by Sister Sledge for a promo video for The X Factor . She was taken on by TaP Management, who represented singer Lana Del Rey, and aged 19, finally signed a record deal with Warner Records in 2014. “The first time I met Dua, she had an energy that felt bigger than the room,” says Joe Kentish, president of Warner Music Group.

Her debut single New Love was released the following year, and first album Dua Lipa arrived in June 2017. With her star in the ascendency, the second album Future Nostalgia followed in March 2020 and reached No1, in spite of the Covid pandemic.

As her rise continued, Dua decided to leave TaP Management in February 2022, reportedly due to rows over earnings. As part of the separation, she purchased the rights to her entire musical back catalogue. “It’s my life’s work,” she said. “So it’s good to be the person to say what happens with it.”

Dua then established her own media and management company, Radical22, appointing dad Dugi as her manager. “It was very easy to say, ‘This is the person that I trust the most with everything,’” she said. “He’s my best friend, we have such an open dialogue and that’s why I feel so in control, because there’s not a single email or thing that we wouldn’t talk about.”

As Lauren Kreisler from Official Charts says, “Radical22 brought her publishing and production under one roof, creating a world of new opportunity. It was a bold move, and definitely not for everyone, as some artists prefer to focus on their creativity and outsource the rest. But thankfully both approaches can work.”

In May 2024, Dua released third album Radical Optimism , which debuted at No1, and in November she embarked on a world tour.

While she’ll be on the road until December, a break in July and August will enable her to relax with family, friends and fiancé Callum Turner.

Dua regularly holidays on the glorious Albanian coast, and it’s clear her heritage is as important as her British status. “I feel very proud to be from both places and I feel like I represent both,” she has said.

It has been reported that Dua is even building a multimillion-pound villa in Albania, with views over the Ionian Sea. Her property portfolio also includes a West Hampstead home she bought for £6.75 million in 2020, and a Beverly Hills mansion. No shortage of party pads then!

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