Dua Lipa was determined to mine some new pop gold on her upcoming third studio album, which is why she had to slog through a lot of “terrible ideas” to get to the shiny nuggets she’s preparing for the collection whose release date and title have not yet been revealed. “It just takes me a little while and I just go through such a process of filtering through and trying to get the best of the best out of what I’ve worked on,” the singer told KISS FM UK’s Harriet Rose in an interview earlier this week about the laborious process of separating the pop wheat from chaff.
“The more you dig then you really get to the good, the juicy bits,” she said, laughing as Rose paid a sideways compliment by saying that she’d love to hear an entire album of “s–t” Dua songs the singer had rejected because she loves Lipa’s music that much. “I can’t,” Dua smiled. “That’s the thing about when songs get leaked, songs that were never meant to come out get leaked, because it’s such a big part of your process while you’re figuring it out and you’re going through all the really bad ideas and then all of a sudden people hear that and you’re like, ‘that’s not me! It’s me figuring out me.’”
So far, the first single, “Houdini,” is the only new music we’ve heard from the singer’s upcoming third album, the follow-up to her smash 2020 breakthrough dance pop extravaganza, Future Nostalgia. The single, which features production and writing from Tamp Impala’s Kevin Parker and Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr., hints at the more psychedelic vision Dua has for the LP.
“Houdini” is Dua’s first solo non-soundtrack single in two years. Following the release of Future Nostalgia — which spawned several Billboard Hot 100 hits including “Don’t Start Now” (No. 2), “Levitating” (No. 2) and “Break My Heart” (No. 13) — Lipa has appeared on a few singles, including “Dance the Night” from the Barbie soundtrack.
Watch Dua Lipa talk about the new album and her “Houdini” single below.