Today’s #songoftheday is Dua Lipa’s ” scorching hot Be The One.” You may remember that I wrote about Dua recently when we covered the Shy Luv remix of “Be The One” recently. Well, I’ve been listening to the original version of “Be The One” for days now and thought it finally deserved the spotlight. Its 2-Step/UK Garage flavored beats knock it out of the park and her vocals are the perfect mix of pop and soul. I could see her becoming her generation’s Kylie Minogue. It’s no wonder she’s just been nominated for the BBC Sound of 2016. Yesterday, “Be The One” was the track of the day on BBC Radio 1! Quite the buzz about this one! Needless to say I just had to do a little Q&A with Dua herself…
Interview by Michael McCarthy…
MM: I love your new single, “Be The One”. Who were your influences for that one?
DL: Be The One is actually the only song on my album I didn’t write. It written by a girl called Lucy who’s an artist that goes under the name of Pawws and the song is produced by Digital Farm Animals. When I heard the song it really reached out to me as I was just starting to release music and for me Be The One just said persistence and never giving up no matter what the world is telling you!
MM: One of the things I like about “Be The One” is the way you’ve used the synth, pouring on just enough to make the song bright but not rendering it so heavy that it dominates the mix, which is the case with a lot of synth pop we’re hearing lately. Were you careful about that? Or is it just luck that it turned out that way?
DL: Nick (Digital Farm Animals) knows what he’s doing! He’s a pro! haha I’m sure he thought this through long and hard!
MM: Your first single, “New Love,” was in a different vein than “Be The One” with its heavy beats that remind me of FKA twigs or even trip hop like Massive Attack and Tricky. Who were your influences for that one? Who produced it?
DL: The producer for New Love is Emile Haynie, he also produced FKA twigs’ first album so I can see the possibility of you finding a common ground to something of hers. I wrote this song with Andrew Wyatt and if i’m honest there was no specific influence for it. It was more just an honest moment about what was going on in my life.
MM: I understand you’re in the studio now. Can you tell us anything about the songs you’re working on? Will the album be as diverse as “Be The One” and “New Love” are? Or are you just aiming for songs in the “Be The One” vein at this point?
DL: The songs are a mix up of the two! I feel like they both have similar influences synth driven with a big beat. I wanna call it dark pop which to me means pop with heavy hip hop influence (be it the beat, the way its sung, the flow or even the lyrics). Can’t wait for you all to hear more!!
MM: We can’t wait either!
Thanks to Dua for taking the time to answer our questions and thanks to her publicist, Tasha Anderson, for making it happen!
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