Dualipa She's The One

She Never Had a Plan B – Just as Well She’s a Huge Success!

- Belinda Wanis

Dua Lipa was just 18 and waitressing in London when she signed her record deal. Now, five years later, she plays to huge crowds, has won 30 awards (she’s been nominated for over 100!) and is being hailed the biggest female artist from Britain since Adele!

Despite growing up in a musical household (Dua’s father Dukagjin was an Albanian rock star) and singing from the age of five, Dua’s music career was almost put on hold before it began when her choir teacher told her she couldn’t sing as her voice was too low. Just as well the pop queen ignored that feedback!

Dua’s parents sought refuge in London after fleeing war-torn Kosovo in the ’90s. Highly educated, her father and mother Anesa worked in cafes and bars during the day and retrained in the evening.

Dua was born in 1995 and raised in London. But when she was 11, her parents decided to move back to Kosovo. ‘It was absolutely mortifying,’ Dua recalls of starting school in Kosovo. ‘They were so far ahead, in terms of mathematics and science. I got such bad grades, especially in the first six months. I could speak the language, but I couldn’t read or write in it.’

PURSUING HER DREAMS