Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism

[Mike]

Hosting AND performing on SNL on May 4th!

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Apr 13, 2024 23:03:56 GMT -5 Mike said:

Hosting AND performing on SNL on May 4th!

Oh it’s new? For some reason I thought it was a rerun. That’s fun!

[Juan Carlos]

This is huge for her. And the fact that this is during the album's release is even better.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5ulD7IN3uf

[Mike]

Apr 13, 2024 23:05:39 GMT -5 Rose "Payola" Nylund said:

Apr 13, 2024 23:03:56 GMT -5 Mike said:

Hosting AND performing on SNL on May 4th!

Oh it’s new? For some reason I thought it was a rerun. That’s fun!

The next two weeks will be repeats until May 4th when she's on. I imagine her first performance will be "Illusion" followed by an album track similar to Ari last month.

[Juan Carlos]

I'm inclined to think that Dua will perform "Illusion" and "Happy for You" in a similar way when she performed "New Rules" and "Homesick" back in 2018 there.

[wjr15]

Double duty on SNL is a big deal!! Great for her

[Juan Carlos]

Announced as the first 2024 TIME100 cover star. You could read the interview here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5yAxyiOoVX

[felipe]

Apr 15, 2024 7:17:47 GMT -5 Juan Carlos said:

Announced as the first 2024 TIME100 cover star. You could read the interview here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5yAxyiOoVX

Please don't get me wrong, absolutely no hate intended, but are these covers paid for? I mean, she's the first cover announced which just happens to coincide with her album promo cycle?

[wjr15]

^The timing was probably planned by both Time and Dua. It makes sense Time Magazine would wanna release Dua’s cover during her promo cycle for Radical Optimism because that would help sales of their magazine. We might see this more with other musicians, actors, athletes, politicians, etc who have been selected for the cover.

[felipe]

Apr 16, 2024 8:40:13 GMT -5 wjr15 said:

^The timing was probably planned by both Time and Dua. It makes sense Time Magazine would wanna release Dua’s cover during her promo cycle for Radical Optimism because that would help sales of their magazine. We might see this more with other musicians, actors, athletes, politicians, etc who have been selected for the cover.

Makes sense.

[Youknowit]

I'm so excited for this album!! She's 3 for 3 here for me.

I wish the singles would pop off a little more in the US, but I have faith things will pick up once the album is released and she promotes with more live performances. It seems her team / Warner are investing in growing the Dua Lipa name with more interviews than performances (we've gotten what - two?).

[Juan Carlos]

Revealed by a reliable source that "End of an Era" will be the focus track during the album release this Friday.

[Deleted]

Apr 28, 2024 12:10:39 GMT -5 Juan Carlos said:

Revealed by a reliable source that "End of an Era" will be the focus track during the album release this Friday.

Seriously??? What an absolute mess if they want to push a 4th song already. She is legitimately going to end up with zero real US hits from this era and be in a rough spot for relevancy here going forward. They need to let Illusion breathe and push it as hard as possible.

[HEADOFTHEPACK]

^ a new focus track during album week is completely normal?

[Juan Carlos]

Focus track ≠ Single

With that premise, it's usual from labels to pick a song as the 'focus track' during the album release, which will be basically the one in the New Music Friday playlists on streaming platforms. That said, this means that they won't push it as the next single and it's only a song they think it represents the album to make people who check what's new during the week to do so.

[Deleted]

I still think it’s a really bad idea under the circumstances of this era. All focus should be on Illusion unless it was cliff diving on the charts. This is basically what happened with Guts and how that era crashed and burned

[Elusive Chanteuse]

Apr 29, 2024 13:31:45 GMT -5 @pikandru said:

I still think it’s a really bad idea under the circumstances of this era. All focus should be on Illusion unless it was cliff diving on the charts. This is basically what happened with Guts and how that era crashed and burned

I don’t think you understand the meaning of the focus track. Since Illusion is already out, it cannot be the focus track when the album is released. It has to be something new. End of the Era will be the one placed on the new release playlists, but I’m certain they’re going full steam with Illusion and will not shift plans at all.

Ideally they should’ve saved Illusion for the album release, but here we are. I also do find it interesting that they opted out for the opening song to be the focus track when according to Dua, it’s a “bridge” in terms of sound between Future Nostalgia and Radical Optimism so to me, I’m thinking they are going down the safe route in terms of convincing the general public into listening to the album.

[felipe]

Apr 29, 2024 19:07:15 GMT -5 Elusive Chanteuse said:

Apr 29, 2024 13:31:45 GMT -5 @pikandru said:

I still think it’s a really bad idea under the circumstances of this era. All focus should be on Illusion unless it was cliff diving on the charts. This is basically what happened with Guts and how that era crashed and burned

I don’t think you understand the meaning of the focus track. Since Illusion is already out, it cannot be the focus track when the album is released. It has to be something new. End of the Era will be the one placed on the new release playlists, but I’m certain they’re going full steam with Illusion and will not shift plans at all.

Ideally they should’ve saved Illusion for the album release, but here we are. I also do find it interesting that they opted out for the opening song to be the focus track when according to Dua, it’s a “bridge” in terms of sound between Future Nostalgia and Radical Optimism so to me, I’m thinking they are going down the safe route in terms of convincing the general public into listening to the album.

But the focus track is usually a new single, as Ariana's We Can't Be Friends, right?

[Elusive Chanteuse]

Apr 30, 2024 7:29:08 GMT -5 felipe said:

Apr 29, 2024 19:07:15 GMT -5 Elusive Chanteuse said:

I don’t think you understand the meaning of the focus track. Since Illusion is already out, it cannot be the focus track when the album is released. It has to be something new. End of the Era will be the one placed on the new release playlists, but I’m certain they’re going full steam with Illusion and will not shift plans at all.

Ideally they should’ve saved Illusion for the album release, but here we are. I also do find it interesting that they opted out for the opening song to be the focus track when according to Dua, it’s a “bridge” in terms of sound between Future Nostalgia and Radical Optimism so to me, I’m thinking they are going down the safe route in terms of convincing the general public into listening to the album.

But the focus track is usually a new single, as Ariana's We Can't Be Friends, right?

Yes. Ariana opted to wait until album release to release a new single. Since Dua’s team has the weirdest idea of throwing out singles onto the walls incessantly to see whether they stick or not this era, we are in the situation where they have to stick with an album track as a focus track.

[Deleted]

Yeah, that’s really what I was getting at. I understand it may not be a brand new single, but it’s still a song getting some promo/push that isn’t one of the 3 existing official singles. It’s just all too much at this point and messy af. They should have just waited for album release for Illusion if they knew they still wanted a focus track the week of release.

[wjr15]

So I’m guessing she’ll perform ‘Illusion’ and ‘End of an Era’ on SNL this weekend?

[nightshade]

I'm so excited for this album to finally be out. It's been months. Her not revealing the title name and then for it to really be Radical Optimism is a bit annoying. It doesn't hit for me but I'm guessing in the context in the album it'll make sense.
So many of my copies have finally shipped as well.
3 from her store have shipped and then one from Walmart.

[wjr15]

[Choco]

I'm dreading the numbers but I'm excited for the songs.

[Maximillian]

Take this with a grain of salt but fascinating if true (for the record, I could not verify this anywhere else).

yet…. I also can believe this.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

It’s been giving me Katy Perry Smile era level teas and excitement, which isn’t fantastic considering she’s coming from practically 2020’s version of Teenage Dream.

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

May 1, 2024 22:21:36 GMT -5 Maximillian said:

Take this with a grain of salt but fascinating if true (for the record, I could not verify this anywhere else).

yet…. I also can believe this.

View Attachment

And when record labels pull any sort of budget and investments that they have in an artist, the underperformance will be even worse. They have to spend money to make money.

[Deleted]

Future Nostalgia was Dua's peak, she's only gonna go downhill from here. She'll be irrelevant by the end of the decade, at least in the U.S.

[Juan Carlos]

May 1, 2024 22:21:36 GMT -5 Maximillian said:

Take this with a grain of salt but fascinating if true (for the record, I could not verify this anywhere else).

This is the X/Twitter account which posted that and I found interesting that this Facebook account, basically, copied and pasted it, which is indeed false, lol.

I mean, if the promotion budget has been considerably reduced, how is it possible that Warner make her to do a SNL double duty on 5/4 in the US, a BBC One and Radio 1 Live Lounge on 5/6 and 5/7, respectively, in the UK, interviews and photoshoots to magazines to come out during the album's release week and dropping teasers of the songs from the album ahead of its release around the world (UK / The Netherlands / Brazil / Italy / Australia / Japan / France / US? It doesn't make any sense in my opinion.

[Maximillian]

May 1, 2024 23:44:28 GMT -5 Juan Carlos said:

May 1, 2024 22:21:36 GMT -5 Maximillian said:

Take this with a grain of salt but fascinating if true (for the record, I could not verify this anywhere else).

This is the X/Twitter account which posted that and I found interesting that this Facebook account, basically, copied and pasted it, which is indeed false, lol.

I mean, if the promotion budget has been considerably reduced, how is it possible that Warner make her to do a SNL double duty on 5/4 in the US, a BBC One and Radio 1 Live Lounge on 5/6 and 5/7, respectively, in the UK, interviews and photoshoots to magazines to come out during the album's release week and dropping teasers of the songs from the album ahead of its release around the world (UK / The Netherlands / Brazil / Italy / Australia / Japan / France / US? It doesn't make any sense in my opinion.

While I certainly hope it’s false and want this to succeed for her, her name alone can get SNL, some radio hype and radio interviews. Magazines would have been done well in advance and also free to Warner. A good team and a good name can do wonders without a huge budget these days.

I assume this is more in relation to actual paid digital and print marketing of the album (but as you said, it’s false, so probably nothing to worry on).

Based on the comments from that post, it does seem the GP has felt similar to most in this thread. I'm concerned that even false rumors might turn into reality, and if this album isn’t performing to expectations, I can see a world that Warner does “wrap it up” fast. To be honest, I can’t imagine Warner is thrilled with the performance so far (even though it’s not subpar by any level for most artists, it’s likely below what *they* want).

I imagine release week will underperform on sales, and Warner will get her back to the studio so there can be an extended release with new tracks and a more FN sound, so they can get one big hit, and then get her on tour.

Dua’s career isn’t in danger at all, but I think this will be fascinating to watch play out from a business side of things. Kinda similar to Camila’s Romance era - it did *fine*, but label felt it was low for her, so they packaged on “Senorita” to the album, sent her back to studio, dropped “My Oh My” (which was more in line with the sound her audience liked), got the #1 hit and moved on so they could call it a “success” on paper to shareholders.