9781422270844

the family packed up and moved back to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, where the fighting had subsided, and peace mostly permeated the region. The challenges Lipa faced on returning to Kosovo were plentiful: there was a new country to adjust to, a new school to attend, new classmates to meet, and most notably of all, a new language to learn. While her family spoke Albanian in the comfort of their home, hearing it in classrooms and tackling homework assignments written in the native language produced a lot of difficult moments that she had to work her way through. Finding Comfort in Music Lipa’s dad had a musical background, so it’s not surprising that a love of music seeped into her makeup. A singer in a rock band in Kosovo, Dukagjin loved music, and his go-to listening choices were legendary US rock band The Doors; 17-time Grammy Award winner Sting, lead singer of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame English band The Police, who went on to have a lucrative solo career; English rock band Radiohead; and English singer and songwriter Paul Weller, who fronted The Jam in the 1980s before branching out on a solo career. Dua savored listening to these singers and bands too, but she also loved listening to all sorts of pop music. There was a certain thrill and excitement for her that accompanied hearing new voices, new sounds, and new lyrics, especially those of Pink and Nelly Furtado. Lipa found joy and inspiration in their songs that helped drive her to later produce music that enabled fans to get to know her just as she felt she knew and connected with Pink and Furtado.

“I feel like I really got to know those two (Pink and Nelly Furtado) artists so well just by listening to their music. And that was something I aspired to do with my first album. It was all about allowing people to get to know me, for me.”

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a star is born