International superstar Dua Lipa’s latest song might be called “Houdini” but she explained that it’s about much more than just escaping.
In an interview with 5FM last weekend, the award-winning Albanian singer and songwriter referenced Harry Houdini -- the acclaimed late escape artist and illusionist -- and admitted that his work was in her thinking when she came up with the idea of the song.
But the 28-year-old told the local radio station’s Nick Archibald that the hit, which was released last Friday is essentially about self love.
“I just loved the name Houdini and it was kind of written in my notebook as an idea for a song but when I started to think of the real meaning of Houdini and him as an escape artist, it then came to me as the idea of knowing your self worth, knowing when to stay, knowing when to go and knowing what you deserve,” she said.
“It’s not necessarily (about) what I'm escaping from, there is a moment in the song, ‘maybe you can be the one that can make me stay’, so there is a form of optimism.
“You never really know what's around the corner but I think for the most part, it's about being able to recognise those feelings and emotions and seeing the red flags for what they are and not looking at them and being ‘like how beautiful is this’, you know,” she added, with a laugh, in the interview.
The songstress also explained that her fans can expect a “new energy” from her latest album.
“Sonically, it's very different to anything that people have heard from me before, especially with the album as a whole,” she admitted.
Lipa also believes that her new album is her most honest body of work to date.
“I just love the idea of being able to evolve and grow as an artist and change it up a little bit and explore new styles and genres and experiment,” she said.
“For as long as I'm doing that and I'm loving it, I feel like I’m on the right track.’
For her latest album, Lipa explained that she worked with new people as well as “old friends” but that she didn’t want to give too much away yet.
“Everything will be revealed over time,” she said.
“I don't want to say too much, I’m still figuring out my language about how to talk about my album without talking about the album but sonically it's different, it's got a new energy.”
And after touring so extensively, the “One Kiss” hitmaker said she was determined to keep her sound organic.
“I wanted the instrumentation and the energy to be what it's like to listen to music live and being able to kind of have that same feeling when you listen to a song through your headphones,” she said.
Lipa’s latest album, which will be her third, is set to be released next year.