All hail Dua Lipa, the pop lit queen
Dua Lipa is famous for her catchy pop hooks — now the singer wants to get fans hooked on books, as she curates the London Literature Festival
“He said, ‘I inhaled them and now I’m on a reading streak.’
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I → hail → streak
That gave me this sense of gratification.”
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That → give → gratification
Well, the pop superstar-turned-book pusher is going to be getting the mother of all freudenfreude hits this coming week
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superstar → turn → hits
as she curates this year’s London Literature Festival
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she → curate → Festival
It’s another headline-grabbing coup for the Southbank Centre following Harry Styles’s Meltdown in the summer, but is far from just an attempt to jazz up the promotional posters.
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It → ’ → posters
Lipa has become a genuine force on the literary scene with her book club and accompanying podcast, underpinned by a newsletter and media site called Service95.
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Lipa → become → newsletter
And the best thing is, it all comes from her own personal need to curate the world.
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it → come → world
“I’ve always been my friends’ concierge,” she says, speaking from New York.
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she → say → York
“Whenever they go somewhere, they ask for recommendations for restaurants or vintage shops, and I always come up with an extensive list.
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I → go → list
I pride myself on people loving the restaurant I told them about.
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I → pride → them
There’s something about it that I get my kicks from… when I was 15 I had a blog with recommendations about what I was enjoying and Service95 has just become a more sophisticated version of that.
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Service95 → ’ → that
But what has given it particular purpose is the focus on books, as much a life-defining passion point as music.
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given → give → music
This is not a move your average megastar makes.
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megastar → make → ?
This whole parallel career of hers seems to be just something fun that’s suddenly become serious.
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that → seem → hers
She says, “It’s just an extension of who I am.”
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I → say → ?
She’s just really into books.
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She → ’ → books
“What I really wanted for the festival was a mix of icons and emerging voices,” she says of her vision for the festival.
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she → want → festival
“I feel so lucky to have legends like Patti Smith, but then we also have debut authors like Sufiyaan Salam who’s written this book called Wimmy Road Boyz.
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who → feel → book
I love discovering these new voices.”
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I → discover → voices
“I feel so lucky to get the opportunity to dive into these books that I love and the conversations I have with authors ends up so profound.
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I → feel → authors
It always expands my worldview”
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It → expand → worldview
Lipa will personally be interviewing Smith and another Smith, Zadie, on stage, along with the Canadian-Sudanese poet and musician Mustafa.
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Lipa → interview → poet
While singing in front of tens of thousands in stadiums around the world is totally fine for her, talking to authors on stage is bringing “butterflies… excitement, the adrenaline rush.
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talking → sing → butterflies
I’ve done a handful of interviews in front of an audience, so I’m ready for it, but you never know what’s going to happen in front of an audience.
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what → do → audience
And yet, this isn’t quite stepping out of her comfort zone so much as stepping into another comfort zone where people scream slightly less.
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people → step → zone
She knows her books.
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She → know → books
She is a compulsive reader, making the most of the travelling time in her globe-trotting — “I rarely log into wi-fi when I’m on the move…
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I → make → move
I can even read in cars, a little flex of mine” — and her podcasts with the likes of Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro are frequently revelatory.
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podcasts → read → Atwood
“George Saunders was another author who was amazing to speak to.
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who → speak → ?
I’m a fan of the world he creates with his stories.
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he → ’m → stories
I feel so lucky to get the opportunity to dive into these books that I love and the conversations I have with authors ends up so profound.
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I → feel → authors
It always expands my worldview.”
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It → expand → worldview
This, in turn, is something that has expanded the worldview of her audiences, and there is real sense of mission behind Service95, which is clearly the result of Lipa’s natural drive but also recognition that there is important work to be done here.
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which → expand → drive
“The site is five years old now, and we offer different perspectives from around the world.
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we → offer → world
For me, it was really important to think: who gets to tell these stories?
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who → think → stories
Lipa was born in London in 1995, just as Britpop crested.
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Britpop → bear → 1995
Her mother, Anesa, and her father, Dukagjin, are Kosovo Albanians who had fled to London as refugees during the Balkans conflicts.
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who → flee → conflicts
Lipa and her two younger siblings were brought up in West Hampstead in a music-loving environment; her father was in a successful rock band called Oda back home.
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father → bring → band
When Kosovo declared independence in 2008, the family left London to live in Pristina, but a couple of years later, in a typically determined move, Lipa returned on her own to live in Camden with another family member.
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Lipa → declare → member
She wanted to start a music career.
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She → want → career
…and 74 more, not listed.
The Aporia
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