Dua Lipa Returns to NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk’ With Stripped-Down Dance Party Vibes

When you’re already number one you can take some chances. Secure that her 2020 pandemic home NPR Tiny Desk concert still holds the record for the most-seen Tiny Desk ever with more than 130 million views, Dua Lipa was back in the crowded public radio offices on Friday (Oct. 25) when her second stripped-down show highlight tracks from this year’s Radical Optimism album.

Speaking to NPR’s Ari Shapiro in an interview before the four-song episode dropped, Dua explained that she flipped the uptempo album track “Happy For You” into a stripped-down piano and voice ballad that represented the song in its “purest form,” stripped of the bubbling electronic production. “It is what it is in the moment, and I think you just feel that song differently,” she said. “You listen to the lyrics in a different way, and it was really fun to think about it and take it back to the basics.”

She also talked about how she flipped the oft-used phrase “if these walls could talk” on “These Walls” by “personify[ing] the walls, because no one knows you more than the four walls in your room.”

The mini-concert opens with an unplugged, meditative take on “Training Season,” highlighted by acoustic guitar and electric piano and a gently thrumming bass and angelic backing vocals before the singer’s seven-person band picks up the pace and (gently) rocks the office with a jazz pop take on the Radical Optimism single.

“I’ve always wanted to come down and be by the desk,” a smiling Dua told the assembled NPR staffers. “We did a at-home Tiny Desk in 2020, so this feels really, really special,” she added, cheekily wondering if anyone had seen that little record-setting show. She then slipped into the chilled out “These Walls” before setting up “Happy For You” by saying she’s always been inspired by the way artist’s reimagine their songs for the series.

Which is why she also switched up the arrangement for the song about her being happy that her ex has a new girlfriend, swapping the original’s wistful pop dance vibe for a skeletal, emotion-forward keyboard and voice arrangement that brought new poignancy to the wish-you-the-best lyrics.

“Even the hard parts were all for the best/ I see where you’re at now, you picked up the pieces/ And then you gave them to somebody else,” she sings over keyboardist Georgie Ward’s gentle backing. The session ends with the album’s first single, the certified banger “Houdini,” whose slinky, joyful vibe likely sent the NPR crew shuffling back to their desks with a big smile on their faces.

Check out Dua’s Tiny Desk show below.