Future Nostalgia
Future Nostalgia is the second studio album by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa. It was released on 27 March 2020 through Warner Records. Lipa enlisted writers and producers such as Jeff Bhasker, Ian Kirkpatrick, Stuart Price, the Monsters & Strangerz, and Koz to create a "nostalgic" pop and disco record with influences from dance-pop and electronic music, inspired by the music that Lipa enjoyed during her childhood.
This article is about the Dua Lipa album. For its title track, see Future Nostalgia (song). For other uses, see Future Nostalgia (disambiguation).Future Nostalgia
27 March 2020
January 2018 – November 2019
- TaP, the Bunker at 13, RAK, Sarm, Sleeper, Oddities (London)
- Green Oak, Diamond Mine, Zenseven (Los Angeles)
- Modulator (Toronto)
- Pulse (Silver Lake)
- The Windmill (Norfolk)
- Gold Tooth (Beverly Hills)
- Masterlink (Surrey)
37:17
The album spawned six singles, along with the title track as a promotional single. "Don't Start Now" was released as the album's lead single, attaining both critical and commercial success, with a peak at number two on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100. Other singles include the UK top-ten singles "Physical" and "Break My Heart", as well as a remix of "Levitating" featuring DaBaby, which reached the top five in the UK and the top two in the US, and went on to top the year-end Hot 100 chart of 2021. The album was originally scheduled to be released on 3 April 2020 but was moved forward after leaking in its entirety two weeks earlier. To promote the album, Lipa embarked on the Future Nostalgia Tour, which commenced in February 2022 after being postponed three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
Upon its release, Future Nostalgia received universal acclaim from music critics, many of whom praised the production, its cohesion and Lipa's stylistic evolution. Commercially, the album topped the charts in fifteen countries and reached the top ten in thirty-one countries. In the United Kingdom, it peaked atop the UK Albums Chart for four non-consecutive weeks, becoming her first album to do so as well as garnering her first-ever nomination for the Mercury Prize, and earning the Brit Award for British Album of the Year. At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, Future Nostalgia was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Pop Vocal Album, whilst "Don't Start Now" was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Future Nostalgia was succeeded by its remix album, Club Future Nostalgia, released on 28 August 2020 which received positive reviews from the critics. A French edition of Future Nostalgia was released on 27 November 2020, which yielded the French number-one single "Fever". A reissue of the album, subtitled The Moonlight Edition, was released through Warner on 11 February 2021, along with its lead single, "We're Good".
Background[edit]
After the release of Dua Lipa: Complete Edition in October 2018, the expanded deluxe edition of Lipa's debut album, and the single "Swan Song" in January 2019, released in promotion of Alita: Battle Angel (2019), Lipa confirmed that she was working on a new album.[2] In October 2019, Lipa began teasing the album as a new "era,"[3][4][5] before clearing her social media later that month to announce the lead single, "Don't Start Now".[6][7][8] Lipa stated that she cleared her social media in order to prove to herself that social media wasn't real, that one could post and choose to use platforms any way they wanted. She further elaborated that she wanted to start fresh with her new album, but she would always have her memories.[9] Whilst promoting "Don't Start Now", Lipa confirmed that she would be announcing the album in late November or early December 2019, along with the release of the title track.[10]
On 1 December 2019, Lipa revealed the album title through a tattoo on her left bicep with the title, Future Nostalgia, while also announcing its accompanying arena tour of the same name and that the album would be released in 2020.[11][12] The following month, three songs ("Physical", "Break My Heart", and "If It Ain't Me", an unreleased collaboration with Normani) leaked online in a security breach.[13] Shortly after on 29 January 2020, Lipa announced that the album would be released on 3 April of that year.[14] The following day, the track list was revealed and the album was made available for pre-order.[15][16] In late March, the entire album leaked and the release was brought forward by a week to 27 March 2020. Lipa additionally expressed her concern about releasing the album during the COVID-19 pandemic.[17][18]
Concept[edit]
Cover artwork[edit]
The cover artwork of Future Nostalgia was shot by French photographer, Hugo Comte, who also handled the creative direction and the photographs associated with the album's campaign, with Guillaume Sbalchiero handling the design.[19] It was shot on 13 November 2019, and Lipa revealed it on 29 January 2020, along with the album's release date announcement.[14][20] During shooting the promotional photography, Comte had one song on repeat for each shot to get Lipa in the mood for him to get the right shot.[21]
Recording[edit]
Lipa began work on Future Nostalgia in January 2018 and finished in November 2019.[33][34] However, during the first year of production, she was still promoting her first album on the Self-Titled Tour and was still figuring out the direction she wanted to go in.[35] Lipa had begun thinking of ideas for the album before Dua Lipa was released in June 2017.[36] After figuring out the album's title, she worked backwards figuring out the sound and lyrical content she desired.[28] She challenged herself to break out of her comfort zone to make music that could sit alongside her favourite classic pop songs, being inspired by Gwen Stefani, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Moloko, Blondie, and Outkast. After touring, Lipa aspired to have a more live element on the record, mixed with a modern electronic production, but to still have the pop sensibility of her first record. Lipa thought that her sound had "naturally matured."[37]
The majority of the album was recorded in a nine-month period after figuring out its title, where she had sessions every day, including ones at Geejam Studios in Jamaica.[35][38] Lipa recorded upwards of nearly 60 songs for the album,[39] including unreleased collaborations with producers Max Martin, Nile Rodgers, Mark Ronson, and Pharrell Williams,[38][40][41][42] as well as a collaboration with Normani titled "If It Ain't Me",[13] and "Bad To You", a song with Ariana Grande. "Bad To You" was later released by Grande, Normani, and Nicki Minaj on the Charlie's Angels: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack after Lipa and Grande were unable to finish their respective parts due to scheduling conflicts.[43][44][45] A planned collaboration with Katy Perry titled "Ball & Chain" was also canceled due to scheduling issues.[46] Another song that was intended for the album, but did not make the cut, "Retrograde", was later recorded by Aleyna Tilki and released as her debut English-language single.[47] Lipa's single "Un Día (One Day)" with J Balvin, Bad Bunny, and Tainy was revealed to be recorded during sessions for Future Nostalgia.[48]
Commercial performance[edit]
Future Nostalgia debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart with 34,390 units, only 550 units behind 5 Seconds of Summer's Calm.[270] In its second week, it reached the summit of the chart, with Future Nostalgia becoming Lipa's first UK number one album. The album would go on to top the chart for three more non-consecutive weeks.[271] On 17 April 2020, it was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for selling over 60,000 units in the UK. The album holds the record for having the lowest one-week sales while at the top of the chart in the modern era, when it was number one the week beginning 15 May 2020 with sales of only 7,317.[272] It was certified double Platinum by the BPI in 2022, having shifted over 600,000 units to date in the UK.[273] In October 2021, the BBC's music correspondent Mark Savage noted that Future Nostalgia was the only British album released since the start of 2020 to have been certified Platinum by the BPI.[274]
Just like in the UK, Future Nostalgia entered the Australian album chart at number two before rising to the top in April 2020.[275] After charting for almost a year the album climbed back to the number one spot in March 2021.[276] It was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association for the 35,000 units sold.[277] Following the release of the album's Australian tour edition vinyl in April 2022, the album returned to number one for a third non-consecutive week in its 108th week on the chart.[278]
The album topped the record charts of 14 countries, including Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain.[279]
Future Nostalgia debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 dated 11 April 2020, with 66,000 album-equivalent units, including 18,000 pure album sales. A major improvement over her self-titled debut album (which peaked at number 27), it became Lipa's first top 10 album on the chart.[280] The following week, the album dropped to number 8, with sales declining by 43% to nearly 38,000 units.[281] It remained within the top ten in its third week.[282] As of December 2020, the album has sold 931,000 album-equivalent units in the United States.[283] After the release of its reissue The Moonlight Edition in February 2021, the album surged back at number seven on the Billboard 200, reaching the top 10 for the first time in 10 months with 32,000 album-equivalent units earned, increasing by 58% compared to the previous week.[284] On the chart dated 27 March 2021, following Lipa's performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, one year after its initial release, the album reached a peak of number three on the chart, moving 37,000 album-equivalent units that week.[285]
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Future Nostalgia was the tenth most successful album of 2020 worldwide, with 3.3 million album-equivalent units sold.[286][287] In 2021, the album once again made IFPI's Global Album All-Format Chart at number six.[288]
The album is currently the sixth most streamed album of all time on Spotify, with over twelve billion streams.
Impact[edit]
According to Billboard, as of 2022, Future Nostalgia is one of the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums without any of its singles being number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100.[289] According to Tom Corson, co-chairman of Warner Records, Lipa has "the benefit of being a pioneer" for being "the first major pop star to release an album in quarantine".[290] David Levesley of GQ magazine described Future Nostalgia as "the decade's first great pop album" and explained that the album "balances stadium anthems with also being a gospel of feminine excellence for all the teens looking to her for inspiration".[291] while Chris Willman of Variety called the album the "Reigning Dance-Pop Album of the Century", compared it to Taylor Swift's Folklore, and further wrote that both albums "barely seemed to exist in the same world, let alone genre, but they effectively captured a populace's polarized reactions to the cessation of normal life as anyone knew it".[292] Rolling Stone described Future Nostalgia as "the disco liberation soundtrack we need" during COVID-19 pandemic.[293]
The Daily Beast called the album an "apocalypse game-changer" and emphasized that it will "have us dancing until the world ends".[294] The Wall Street Journal called Lipa "one of the biggest breakout stars of lockdown" due to the critical and commercial success of the album.[295] According to BBC News, Lipa is one of the artists who brought the 80s back to the music industry. She was also one of the UK's most-played artist in 2020 as the album "proved to be the soundtrack to many people's quarantine, with its uplifting disco anthems providing the perfect antidote to isolation".[296][297] Upon the release of Drake's Honestly, Nevermind and Beyoncé's Renaissance, both in 2022, some publications cited Future Nostalgia as the predictor of a house music revival, along with Lady Gaga's Chromatica.[298][299]