Dua Lipa – Manchester Apollo – 14/04/18
Best new artist, Best Newcomer, Best Pop Act, Best Female, Best Music Video, Best Song, and Album Of The Year. These are just a few of the awards Dua Lipa has racked up since the release of her debut album just short of a year ago.
The release of her self-titled album in June has rocketed Dua Lipa (10) into superstardom. After an incredible UK tour last October, Dua was quick to announce a second tour to follow up in 2018, and it was no surprise to see it sell out in the blink of an eye.
After polishing off a couple more awards at the Brits last month, Dua Lipa is finally all set up to run through her sold out UK tour, and this weekend belongs to Manchester with two huge shows at the Apollo.
An incredibly diverse group of fans gather to fill the sold-out Apollo to create an excitable atmosphere as Dua Lipa is set to take the stage. Phone screens pop up left right and centre to illuminate the crowd as a rather familiar looking silhouette shines on an overhanging curtain, dropping to reveal Britain’s hottest star strutting her stuff to opener ‘Blow Your Mind’. Appropriately, our mind is blown as 3,500 fans are bouncing along in seconds to the infectious chorus.
With only her debut album and a few extra hit singles to mix and match through the setlist, tonight’s show can’t change too much from last Octobers tour, so Dua has pushed everything else possible to up her game on this tour. Block LCD towers, dancers, lasers, and a blast of confetti only enhance an incredible show.
Fan favourites such as ‘Lost in Your Light’, ‘Dreams’, ‘Be The One’, and album opener ‘Genesis’ all feature in the first half of the show to keep everyone on their toes. It’s an evening full of emotion as Dua Lipa takes us on a rollercoaster ride through her most upbeat party anthems and stripped back moving tracks to bring us back down to earth.
‘Homesick’ has Dua perched on the end of a transparent piano filled with sunflowers, under a single spotlight surrounded by glowing lights from phones creating an atmosphere of sparking stars all around her leading to a tear or two from the singer as the song closes.
The set only gets stronger in the closing stages as Dua pulls out the big guns to finish off the show. The blistering ‘Hotter Than Hell’ has us eating out of the palm of her hand for one of the highlights of the night, before an encore of ‘IDGAF’ brings some tongue and cheek explicitly to the night. Super hit single ‘New Rules’ finishes off the show with the whole crowd crouched low through the breakdown, before leaping into life for a bouncing final chorus as confetti fires from the stage leaving the Apollo in a mist of trickling colour.
Not a single person leaves the Apollo without a smile painted across their face, including a beautiful grin on the face of the singer herself. She, as do we, know this is only the beginning of something special.
Can anything stop Dua Lipa?
