Dua Lipa Has Always Been Independent, But Only After Her Breakup Realized That She Wanted to Enjoy Being Single

Over the course of her career, singer Dua Lipa has won three Grammys and a number of other awards, as well as setting two world records (for the highest number of tickets sold for a livestreamed concert and the highest number of monthly listeners on Spotify). She has continued to develop her career and grow as a person. After the end of a long-term relationship, Lipa is learning to enjoy being single and sharing her experience with the world.

Dua Lipa became independent from her parents at an early age.

Dua Lipa was born in London. There she attended Sylvia Young Theatre School before her family moved to Kosovo. When Lipa was 15, she decided that she wanted to return to London, but this time on her own. Her parents let her go. For a while, she lived with a family acquaintance before moving in with her friends. She realized that no one was going to look after her, so she learned to cook, clean, and do laundry. She decided that since she could do all this herself, she could also build a career in music.

Dua persevered in becoming a singer, despite setbacks.

Her journey into the world of music started while she was still in school, where she immediately faced difficulties when she wasn’t accepted into the choir: “It was because I couldn’t sing the high notes and the teacher was like, ’Yeah you can’t sing...’ I was absolutely heartbroken.” She started practicing hard and recording song covers.

Things didn’t quite go according to plan there, either: “I thought that was the easiest thing I could reach out to — social media and YouTube. It never had that kind of Justin Bieber effect I was hoping for.” But it did help her to build a portfolio, and eventually she started receiving offers from producers. This marked the start of her career.

She didn’t let anyone control her.

At 16, Dua started modeling, but was faced with demands she wasn’t prepared to meet. The manager claimed that in order to get on the catwalk, she had to lose weight. Lipa didn’t compromise and flat-out refused to comply with this condition, stating: “I don’t want to do catwalk. The only reason I’m in this is to make contacts. I just really want to eat Krispy Kreme.”

Her independence was just as evident later when she became a professional singer. “I’ve always been very much in control of my music and my image and I think one of the things I’ve been lucky about is I didn’t bring a label on board until I really figured out who I was,” Lipa reflected. She was looking for a team that believed in her ideas and didn’t try to make her perform songs that weren’t suitable for her: “At the end of the day, I worked so hard to get who I am out there and not a manufactured something that somebody else wants me to be.”

After her breakup, she shared her thoughts on marriage.

Throughout the years, Lipa was not only building her career, but also developing her personal relationships. From 2019 to 2021, her partner was Anwar Hadid. After their breakup, rumors of Lipa’s new relationships circulated more than once, which she never confirmed. The singer has, however, been open about her views on marriage.

In one podcast, she admitted that she never dreamed of marriage: “Some girls go, ’I’ve dreamt about what my dress is going to be like on my wedding day’ — never something I’ve envisioned.” Her opinion may have been influenced by her commitment to work, which she loves, and therefore she thinks: “Maybe ’finding the one’ isn’t the thing for me.”

However, she also talks about the importance of other relationships: “I think friendship is a much purer relationship. I think about that a lot with my girlfriends, for example. I have these amazing relationships with my friends, and I can sit and talk to them about anything feel very at peace. They understand me wholeheartedly.”

Dua is learning to enjoy being single.

Single life has been an important learning experience for Lipa. “For me, this is the first year I’ve not been in a relationship for a very long time. It’s been really great to just be alone and only think about myself and kind of be quite selfish,” the singer revealed.

Though being alone turned out to not be so easy. She shared her feelings about going to a restaurant by herself. “I’m an extrovert’s extrovert. I like being around people, it gives me comfort, I enjoy it... But now I’m really learning to spend time alone. I love just being comfortable in my own time and in my own space,” the singer admitted.

Some social media users weren’t too impressed with her story, saying they often go out by themselves and don’t consider it an achievement. To which Lipa replied: “I think that’s amazing if you do it all the time. You must be so confident. But it was a big step for me.” And even though the experience was not an easy one for her, she has no intention of giving up: “The next chapter of my life is about truly being good with being alone.”

Lipa believes yoga changed her life.

Lipa has the time to do things other than music, too. One of her hobbies is yoga. She regularly posts photos and videos on social media showing her doing asanas of varying difficulty, and in the summer she herself delivered a class for the listeners of her podcast. “Yoga is the best. It has changed my life, for sure. Having that hour to yourself to not think about anything and just focus on your body...” Lipa explained.