Dua Lipa: Eight of the Brit Award winner’s top feminist moments

'Here's to more women on these stages, more women winning awards and more women taking over the world'

Dua Lipa has been making waves in the music industry since the dawn of her career with her strong belief in female empowerment.

The 23-year-old, famous for her “dark pop” music style, has used her influential platform on multiple occasions to raise awareness of women’s issues and speak up for gender equality.

Take last year, for example, when she celebrated her British Female Solo Artist win at the 2018 Brit Awards by imploring more women to start “taking over the world”.

Or a month later, when the star marked International Women’s Day by surprising a group of young schoolgirls at an art gallery in Australia.

On Wednesday 20 February, Lipa is scheduled to perform alongside Calvin Harris at the 2019 Brit Awards, where she is nominated for four awards.

Ahead of her performance, we’ve taken a look back at the most memorable occasions on which the singer demonstrated her dedication to female empowerment.

From discussing the lack of women in the music industry to talking about the negative impact of catcalling, here are eight of Lipa’s top feminist moments:

1. Discussing the true definition of feminism

In a December 2018 Vogue interview, Lipa explained that contrary to some beliefs, feminism isn’t about women classifying men as inferior, but rather urging society to ensure that they’re treated equally.

“Feminism to me is not man-hating, it’s just being like ‘we deserve the same opportunities’,” the “IDGAF” singer said.

“You hear so much about all these strong important men who have changed the world, even in history and the story of mankind, somehow the f****** story starts with: ‘Well, the man did this.’”

2. Campaigning for more women in the music industry

Having been signed by Warner Music Group at 18 years old, Lipa has been working professionally in the music industry for five years.

As such, the singer has noticed a lack of women working at a senior level within the music in comparison to men.

“I think the music industry as a whole just needs more women,” she told Glamour in July 2017.

“There are a lot of men at the top of the ranks.”

In January 2018, global think tank the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative released a report highlighting the gender inequality that remains rife within the music industry.

Out of the 651 producers included in the study, only two per cent of them were female.

3. Celebrating International Women’s Day with a group of young fans

On 8 March 2018, Lipa celebrated International Women’s Day by surprising a group of excited, young fans at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.

The singer posted a video of their interaction on Instagram.

“Happy International Women’s Day,” Lipa said to the camera, prompting cheers and whoops from the group of schoolgirls.

The star also tweeted a message in celebration of the day, sharing a throwback snap of her as a child with two friends.

“Love each other, look after each other and support each other. Not just today but everyday,” she wrote in the tweet, which garnered almost 20,000 likes.

4. Dedicating her Brit Award win to “women taking over the world”

Lipa was one of the biggest winners of the night at the 2018 Brit Awards, picking up the prizes for British Female Solo Artist and British Breakthrough Act and receiving nominations for three more awards.

While accepting the British Female Solo Artist accolade, the singer delivered an empowering speech about women within the music industry and around the world aspiring for greatness.

“I want to thank every single female who has been on this stage before me that has given girls like me — not just girls in the music industry, but girls in society — a place to be inspired by and look up to and have allowed us to dream this big,” she stated.

“Here’s to more women on these stages, more women winning awards and more women taking over the world.”

5. “New Rules” described as an “anthem” for teen girls

Over the years, young girls have looked up to artists such as Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera and the Spice Girls to provide them with the ultimate teen girl anthems. And then along came Lipa.

In 2017, the singer released “New Rules” from her eponymous debut studio album.

Described as a “female-empowerment anthem”, the song is about establishing new rules for yourself in order to move on from a past relationship.

The music video currently has more than 1.5 billion views on YouTube.

“New Rules by Dua Lipa is my female/love life anthem right now,” one fan wrote on Twitter.

6. Opening up about being underrated as a female artist

Despite having been nominated for numerous musical accolades during her career, including 10 Brit Awards, two Grammy Awards and five NME Awards, the star often feels that she’s underestimated as a female artist.

“For a female artist, it takes a lot more to be taken seriously if you’re not sat down at a piano or with a guitar, you know?” she told GQ in March 2018.

“For a male artist, people instantly assume they write their own music, but for women, they assume it’s all manufactured.”

Lipa became the first female artist to receive five Brit Award nominations in a single year in 2018.

7. Praising female artists for “stepping up”

In 2018, Grammys boss president Neil Portnow said that in his opinion, female artists need to “step up” to win awards.

Lipa addressed this contentious statement while accepting the award for Best New Artist at the 2019 Grammy Awards, saying that it was an honour “to be nominated alongside so many incredible female artists this year”.

“I guess this year we really stepped up,” the singer added.

Lipa later told reporters that she hopes to see more female artists nominated for awards in future.

“Being in the New Artist category and having so many female artists nominated is a big change. It’s a change we hope to see for many years to come,” she said.

8. Highlighting the harmful impact of catcalling

According to a study conducted by Plan International UK in 2018, two thirds of young girls have experienced some form of sexual harassment in public.

During her 2018 GQ interview, Lipa spoke about the detrimental impact catcalling can have on young women, making them feel as though they should dress in a certain way in order to prevent it from happening.

“You know, even from school, growing up with kiss chase or whatever, it’s been ingrained in our heads that boys will be boys and its harmless fun and no big deal and to brush things off,” the singer said.

“Like catcalling. To some it might not seem a lot, but it affects your mood, people get embarrassed about the way they dress.

“For lots of females, be it actresses, singers, models, no matter what it is, it’s not being able to have the right to dress and wear how and what you want and be taken seriously.”