Dua Lipa kicked off the 2024 Grammys with her new song “Training Season” and followed up with her recent single “Houdini,” which is heavily influenced by psychedelia. In between the two songs, she briefly sang a line from her song “Dance the Night” from the “Barbie” soundtrack, which was nominated for two Grammys.
Sporting all-black attire and red hair, the singer danced around a large cage on stage and even dropped to the floor during the guitar riff in “Houdini.”
Lipa had previously teased a snippet of “Training Season” on social media. The single is scheduled for release on February 15th as a lead-up to her third studio album, which does not yet have a release date.
During his monologue, host Trevor Noah lauded Lipa as “one of the greatest performers of a generation.”
A three-time Grammy winner, Dua received nominations this year for song of the year and best song written for visual media for her song “Dance the Night” from the “Barbie” soundtrack. The disco pop track was also nominated for best original song for a motion picture at this year’s Golden Globes, although the award ultimately went to Billie Eilish and Finneas for their song in the same film.
Talking to Variety in a “Behind the Song” episode, Dua explained, “‘Barbie’ completely took over our lives — we were completely Barb-ified.” She continued, “We were putting post-it notes everywhere, trying to brainstorm what ‘Dance the Night’ was going to be.”
Ronson added, “We rewrote ‘Dance the Night’ so many times to match the picture. Like, Dua was literally coming up with lyrics — When Margo does that come-hither thing with her fingers [in the scene], that’s when I want to sing ‘Come along for the ride.’ We actually engineered that song almost like a score.”
Speaking on the red carpet at Variety‘s Power of Women event, Dua expressed her excitement about the overwhelming reaction to “Houdini,” stating, “Honestly, it hit me so quick — the intensity of everyone’s reaction. It’s amazing. It’s definitely the biggest reaction I’ve ever gotten from anything I’ve ever done. I’m just really happy and ready to start this next chapter.”