This Friday May 6th, Dua Lipa was finally playing at SportPaleis! Firstly announced for May 2020, rescheduled to February 2021, rescheduled again to october 2021 and so now to May 2022. Better late than never! And as this show was soldout since a while, she added a second show which was also (99%) soldout. Does it worth it? Spoiler alerte: yes!
November 2017, Dua Lipa is playing her biggest show in her young career: a soldout Lotto Arena with more than 8000 people. As soon as she finished the show, she ran to the venue next door: the SportPaleis. Why? Because Metallica is playing there. And as she said during her show tonight, she wanted only one thing after seeing this: play at SportPaleis one day. And this Friday May 6th, her dream came true. And like Metallica, she played there twice on the same tour!
To open her shows on selected shows, she invited Griff, a young singer but promised to a great career with already a few hits known by a big part of the crowd. Scheduled for 8.00pm, she started around 8.15pm to let enough people get the chance to see the show. Getting more than 22k people in the venue in 90 minutes is quite difficult. Even more on a Friday evening when people come to the show after a busy day at work or university. Or high school, as there are a lot of very young fans. Congrats by the way for the parents who attend the show to join their kids and let them see their idol!
The venue was almost full for her show so it didn’t sound empty but the crowd was still a bit silent. On a few songs like One Night and Black Hole, the audience made their voice heard but that’s it. They were all waiting for Dua Lipa – obviously – and Griff took a moment before the end of the show to say how much she’s thankful to the British singer to invite her on this tour, how kind she was when they speak together, etc. The classic gratitude moment but she seems sincere.
Set-list : Say It again, Walk, Forgive Myself, One Foot In Front Of The Other, Head On Fire, One Night, Shade Of Yellow, Black Hole.
After a 30 minutes break and a Hoegarden Rosée costing 5€ for 33cl, we’re back on our seats to enjoy the show of the new Queen of the Pop (or at least, one of the candidates)! How many songs from “Future Nostalgia”are we gonna get? How many songs from the first album? Show with her full band or more focus on dancing? We could have all the answers before the show by watching videos and set-lists online but we wanted to keep as much suspense as possible…
The evening starts with the introduction of all the people we’re gonna see on stage: singers, dancers, musicians and, of course, the one and only Dua Lipa. With Physical as the opening song, it couldn’t be much better! Sound is great, the big screen behind the stage and small screens on both sides of the stage is a good add. The audience is not on fire yet but it’s only the beginning. But the crowd is really tight on the ground floor: seems hard to move!
Right after a powerful beginning with Physical, we have already a song from the first album, New Rules, where Dua came on the B-stage for the first time during the evening. The sign of more songs from “Dua Lipa” coming soon? Spoiler alerte: no. We’ll only have one more: Be The One. All other songs tonight will be from “Future Nostalgia” played in full and the few singles released through the deluxe version.
The show was divided into 5 parts: the 3 first were the biggest ones with 7, 4 and 4 songs. The other was with one song and the last part was obviously the encore, with 2 songs. Each with different ambiances, different musical arrangements with some songs played without musicians on stage, different clothes for Dua Lipa (sometimes just a few small changes), different songs played between the different parts too. Definitely a big party! But we still have the feeling the crowd is not on the same level as the artist. She gave a lot and the audience gave it almost back the same but not as much. Difficult to know why.
All the songs have a great success but some are definitely on a higher level, every part got its momentum: Break My Heart was the first one. This single, with Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) on drums on the studio album, has such a funk vibe and sounds even more powerful and more groovy live. One of the best songs of the evening. The second highlight was Fever, the single she released featuring Belgian pop star Angele. They performed the song together in London a few days ago and Angele had a 5 days break on their tour in France so everybody hoped to see her in her own country tonight… hell no. We felt the disappointment in the whole arena for a few seconds but then everybody was singing and had a great time with this killer song, watching Angele‘s video on screen during her parts. The next highlight – even if the whole was at a high level – was Cold Heart, the collaboration between Dua Lipa and Elton John. Huge song. Huge response from the crowd. It was also the moment she chose to grab a rainbow flag around her and her colleagues on stage. It was almost the end of the show and it could only end in an epic way. Last song before the encore: the massive hit Levitating. And then the duo Future Nostalgia + Don’t Start Now. With a great end in confettis.
Setlist- Physical, New Rules, Love Again, Cool, Pretty Please, Break My Heart, Be The One / We’re Good, Good In Bed, Fever, Boys Will Be Boys / One Kiss, Electricity, Hallucinate, Cold Heart / Levitating / Future Nostalgia, Don’t Start Now.
Dua Lipa proved tonight that at only 26 years she’s one of the biggest pop stars right now! Selling more than 44k tickets, playing 1h30 with only big hits everybody knows and selling out all the arenas possible in Europe. The only small disappointing thing tonight was not the artist but the crowd: expected a bit more energy. But it was still an amazing evening and we can’t wait to see her again very soon… with a new album?