Perhaps the most attention-grabbing feature is the night’s special guest. Elton John emerged from the chorus of Dua’s backing singers for a glorious rendition of “Cold Heart.” Neither band had ever performed this song in their back-to-back headline sets at Glastonbury, but it’s a unique staging here. We highlight the less obvious aspects of Dua’s skill set that we believe are the most important.
“Anything For Love” is one of the few live debuts, culminating in a pin-drop moment when the song’s lone piano backing disappears and Dua’s voice goes solo. She then paid tribute to “fellow London girl” Cleo Sol, covering the singer’s “Sunshine.” Both offer spine-tingling vocal moments that showcase not only Dua’s range (she especially utilizes her lower register), but also her ability to convey emotion vocally.
It’s no surprise that “Love Again” provides a standout moment for the string section, as does “Dance The Night” from the Barbie soundtrack with its existing string arrangement. But “Pretty Please” offers less obvious musical interpretation highlights, with its bassline given extra impact by double bass and its synth line provided by a pumping brass section. This is probably less magical than Hollywood strings, but much more interesting. A mechanism often used in pop songs that involves simply adding instruments or drastically changing the arrangement to “just fit.”
Most importantly, this evening was fun from start to finish, and will no doubt make for thoroughly enjoyable viewing on screens of various sizes over the coming months. But as another feather in Dua Lipa’s pop star cap, that focus allows her to show a little more of herself as an artist.
