Valentine’s Day is over but Dua Lipa is still looking for someone to give her heart to — but she wants to go big or go home. On her latest single “Training Season,” the singer is growing weary of her own judgement, running out of chances to get it right. “Are you someone that I can give my heart to? Or just the poison that I’m drawn to?” she questions, admitting: “It can be hard to tell the difference late at night.”
The track released alongside a video directed by Vincent Haycock, and opens with with Lipa’s voicemail flooded with apologies and requests for second chances. As the singer sits alone in a cafe, men compete for her attention and the room begins to spin into a dizzying, chaotic scene.
The singer also released an extended, instrumental, and acapella version of the new song.
When Lipa announced the record last month, she explained: “I had been on a string of bad dates, and the last one was the final straw … While it is obviously about that feeling when you are just absolutely done telling people … men specifically in this case, how to date you right; it is also about my training season being over and me growing with every experience.”
Her growth was on full display when she debuted the single at the 2024 Grammy Awards, hitting every mark of her choreography while dancing on an industrial cage and waiving off unsuitable suitors.
“I have never felt more confident, clear or empowered,” she added about the track. “And while it may be that training season is never over for any of us, you start to see the beauty in finding that person to experience it with. You stop looking for the trainees and become more interested in having someone where you are and someone to grow with.”
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“Training Season” arrives as the second single from Lipa’s forthcoming third studio album, which is currently untitled but scheduled to arrive this year. She kicked off the new era with a disappearing act on “Houdini” in November.
“The amount of time I’ve spent in the studio, worked with different people, honed in on my craft, and written so many songs, I’ve also come into a place where I feel really confident in who I am and what I want,” Lipa told Rolling Stone around the time that “Houdini” was released. “I felt like my voice got stronger because of touring, and there are so many different layers to the way I’ve progressed as an artist. It was very easy for me to not be deviated by all these other incredible artists.”