Dua Lipa is back! After weeks of teasing—and three years since she launched the promo campaign for her disco-inspired instant classic Future Nostalgia—the pop superstar returned today with “Houdini,” the first single from her upcoming third album, whose name is yet to be revealed.
And from the very first seconds of the track—which chugs into motion with a whispered “okay” from Lipa, followed by an industrial gurgle of a bassline—you know you’re in the hands of a true pop auteur. “I come and I go / Tell me all the ways you need me,” Lipa sings, with fierce, sweat-flecked urgency. “Catch me or I go / Houdini.” Except it isn’t “Houdini”—it’s delivered as a delightful and (deliberately a little silly) “Hoo-dee-nee,” a refrain that seems specifically designed to worm its way into your brain and remain there for days (and possibly weeks) to come.
Which it inevitably will. With the help of producers Kevin Parker and Danny L. Harle’s wickedly catchy Midas touch, it ricochets between a wonky take on the disco stomp of Voulez-Vous-era ABBA, crunchy production details that speak to Harle’s PC Music origins, and the acid-laced transcendence of Parker’s work with Tame Impala. It’s packed with hooks upon hooks upon hooks, and somehow both fresh and strangely familiar, as only the best pop songs are.
Naturally, given Lipa’s sharp eye for style—the past year even saw her design her own capsule collection for Versace—the accompanying music video is a vision of where her sartorial instincts are heading next. Directed by Manu Cossu with cinematographer André Chemetoff, it begins in the stark environs of a dance studio with mirrors along the wall, where Lipa starts to throw shapes with wild abandon, her freshly dyed red hair swinging across her face. (It’s hard not to be reminded of Madonna’s iconic “Hung Up” video; Lipa always knows how to nail a reference.)
Styled by her long-time collaborator Lorenzo Posocco, Lipa wears a Dion Lee fishnet corset top, navy Martine Rose track pants, and Puma sneakers—capturing the spirit of late-night hedonism she expressed in a release explaining the story behind the song. “This track represents the most light and freeing parts of my singledom,” she says. “[It’s] very tongue in cheek, exploring the idea of whether someone is really worth my while or if I’ll ghost them in the end. You never know where something may take you, that’s the beauty of being open to whatever life throws your way.” Lipa then goes on to stalk her way past the mirrors before a crew of dancers appears with the flash of a strobe light, and then lifts her up in a bacchanalian frenzy; finally, as the song reaches its epic conclusion, she’s left alone in the studio catching her breath.
It all serves as proof—if you really needed it—that Lipa is a pop powerhouse, even without all the bells and whistles of a big-budget, overblown backdrop of a music video. With just one outfit, a handful of dancers, and an absolute banger of a track behind her, Dua Lipa has thrillingly, and self-assuredly, returned to the spotlight.
