Hi, I'm Dua Lipa, and this is the
first time.
The first time I heard my song
on the radio, I was in
London.
I actually knew my song was going to
get played on the radio because
Annie Mac had confirmed that she
was going to play my song, Be The
One on radio one.
And I just finished a studio session
and I decided that I was going to
get a cab that day just
so I wouldn't miss it.
So I put the radio on
while I was in the car and
I was driving home.
Still no song came on, still no song
came on. I got home.
I quickly ran through the door,
put the radio on, and
then my song came on and Annie Mac
had presented it and I
just freaked out.
I'll never forget it was it was one
of the most surreal moments of my
life. I was so excited.
I guess I had kind of
a little bit of an understanding of
why my parents are in the U.K.
and that whole situation, but
it was only when I moved to Kosovo
that I really kind of understand
what the effects of it are and,
you know, how it impacts people's
lives and people's families and
how much a place really suffers
because of the consequences of it.
So I was quite young.
I was about 11 years old when
I started to really kind of
understand what that
is like.
I was 19, I
got it done in L.A., the tattoo
artist is now a friend of mine and I
actually did a bunch of my other
tattoos showing from Texas.
He did this one, which
is Sunhill, and
it's actually the neighborhood my
parents grew up in in Kosovo.
It's an English translation of it,
the Albanian ways, but we do it.
But Sunnyville is something
that will always remind me of home.
And it's the name
of our foundation out there and also
our festival that we are in
Pristina.
Probably just like babysitting
my little brother and sister
was kind of my first job.
They're like my little babies.
I love them so much.
And then I only really kind
of started working in retail
first when I was like 16.
And then I actually started working
in a nightclub
when I was 17.
But that was like on the door.
First time I performed with my dad,
apart from like singing around the
house all the time together,
which was something that we would
often do, first time I
really performed with my dad was at
our festival, Sunhill Festival,
kind of before it became it was
like my first show out in Prishtina.
And it was kind of what sparked the
idea for us to have international
artists everywhere, like coming
to to Kosovo.
But I wanted to surprise my dad
because he helped me put the show
together. He helped me organize the
whole thing. I wanted to surprise
him by learning one of his
most famous songs from his
from his band Order to Perform.
And then I just practice
with my band. And I was in the hope
that he would be close by, that
maybe he would join me.
But I was also prepared to just sing
it all the way through if he was
just like running around and was
super busy and wasn't close to
the stage.
And so I got up.
I started singing the song.
Everyone in the crowd sang the song
with me. My dad was of stage
and I just basically asked
him to come and join me to sing the
second verse.
And it was a really special and
quite emotional show.
That was amazing.
Method man Redman,
that was in Pristina, I was,
I think, 13
years old, it was my first
introduction to Yutang.
I don't remember quite the year,
but I went with some school friends
and yeah, it changed my life
forever.
I feel like I've done a lot of like
standing up for myself in the
playground even when I was a kid,
I never really like to be messed
with. I feel like a lot of the time
I'd get or like teachers would call
my parents to come and pick me up
from school because I'd get in
fights with boys mainly.
And that was probably a lot of me
just kind of standing my ground and
not letting them be mean to me.
And so I guess I was quite
tough since the
kids. So that that
is probably the first time I
stood up for myself.
I was waiting to get on the Eurostar
in Paris and we had just performed
at Lollapalooza there I saw
Kelly from the stereophonic phonics
and I was quite starstruck.
I wanted to go up and
I did actually I did go up and say
hi to him and the whole
band because right after my
set, I did go and watch their set
and it was quite cool to get
to bump into them on the Eurostar.
And the funniest thing was, was he
actually said he was like, oh, I did
read in an interview that you and
your dad would listen to the
stereophonic all the time while
driving driving to school.
So that was cool.
Special little moment.