Training Season
"Training Season" is a song by English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa. It was released on 15 February 2024, as the second single from her upcoming third studio album, Radical Optimism (2024). Lipa premiered the song at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards before its release. "Training Season" peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and at number six on the Billboard Global 200. Elsewhere, the song reached the top ten in various countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Ireland, Lebanon, Luxembourg, and New Zealand.
"Training Season"
15 February 2024
3:29
- Danny L Harle
- Kevin Parker
- Martina Sorbara
- Nick Gale
- Shaun Frank
- Steve Francis Richard Mastroianni
- Tobias Jesso Jr.
- Yaakov Gruzman
- Danny L Harle
- Kevin Parker
Background[edit]
Earlier in 2023, Dua Lipa announced her upcoming third studio album would be released sometime in 2024 with a new sound that sees her moving away from the disco sound of Future Nostalgia (2020), embracing more of 1970s-era psychedelia.[1] After having deleted all of her Instagram posts in October 2023, Lipa posted a picture of herself with red hair captioned "miss me?".[2] Following the single "Houdini" (2023), Lipa released "Training Season" as the second single from her upcoming album on 15 February 2024.[3]
The singer previously teased the song title through a picture she shared on Instagram, wearing a sweater with the caption "Training Season" during a rehearsal.[4] On 24 January 2024 Lipa shared an instrumental snippet of the song through WhatsApp. She announced the single the following day through her social media.[5] Written by Lipa, along with Caroline Ailin, Danny L Harle, Tobias Jesso Jr., Kevin Parker, Martina Sorbara, Nick Gale, Shaun Frank, Steve Francis Richard Mastroianni, and Yaakov Gruzman, the song was produced by Parker and Harle.[6]
On 25 January, Lipa shared a clip of "Training Season" on TikTok. Its lyrics, which she conceived after going on mediocre dates, are about her denouncing unimpressive suitors. The clip featured Lipa singing lyrics over a pounding beat: "I need someone to hold me close, deeper than I've ever known/ Whose love feels like a rodeo, knows just how to take control". She elaborated on the dual meaning of its lyrics, stating that it is about both informing men that she will no longer be training them about how to treat her as well as the completion of her own personal growth.[7]
Composition[edit]
Variety's Jem Aswad compared "Training Season" to the work of ABBA and described its instrumental as a "powerful disco beat", and he further wrote that the song's melody "swerves into Middle-Eastern scales".[8] Consequence's Mary Siroky wrote that song's disco-pop sound calls back to "Houdini", while its "focused, self-assured lyrics" recall back to her 2017 single, "New Rules".[9] It has also been described as a "dance track based off a series of bad dates".[10]
Live performances[edit]
Lipa performed "Training Season" live for the first time at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on 4 February 2024, before its official release.[12] On 2 March 2024, she opened the Brit Awards ceremony with the performance of the song.[13]