"In a pop era where personal messiness is the oxygen of fame, Dua Lipa is the rare unfazed professional. Just as Taylor Swift and Charli XCX's (extremely asymmetrical) feud spilled over the Hot 100 trenches, in comes Lipa's Radical Optimism tour for four nights at the Forum to reassert that it is, in fact, possible to spin off hits while leaving one's personal life unscathed."
"On Saturday at the opening night of her Forum stand, Lipa - herself a British-Albanian-Kosovar atelier of sophisticated, structurally flawless disco-pop - played for nearly three hours with nary a sweat broken. The club hits pulsed, her dancing was evocative and precise, and the set was again punctuated with a locally-sourced cover from each city she performs in; this time "The Chain" from Fleetwood Mac. (Other recent installments included "Me Gustas Tú" by Manu Chao, AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" and "Dernière Danse" by Indila.)"
"This tour in particular feels like the moment when Lipa is opting out of the rise-and-crash fame cycle and into becoming more of an album artist and deeply considered live act. The hazy disco-rock of "Radical Optimism" (produced with tastemakers Kevin Parker, Andrew Wyatt and Danny L Harle, among others) hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200, her best album debut yet. But it didn't yield era-defining singles like the pandemic lifesaver "Future Nostalgia" did."
Dua Lipa delivered a nearly three-hour Forum performance of sophisticated, structurally precise disco-pop with evocative, exact dancing and pulsing club hits. Each show features a locally sourced cover, with the Forum night including Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" alongside past covers like Manu Chao's "Me Gustas Tú" and AC/DC's "Highway to Hell." The Radical Optimism album, produced with Kevin Parker, Andrew Wyatt and Danny L Harle, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The album emphasizes hazy disco-rock and a shift toward album-focused artistry and considered live work, but it did not produce singles as defining as those from Future Nostalgia. Earlier hits such as "Don't Start Now," "Levitating" and "Physical" were major cultural touchstones in 2020; her last U.S. top-10 single was 2023's "Dance the Night."
Read at Los Angeles Times
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