Dua Lipa is one of the headline acts at this year’s iHeartRadio Canada Jingle Ball, which takes place Dec. 2 at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.
Her appearance comes near the end of a phenomenal year for the singer, who followed her global smash “New Rules” with the hit Calvin Harris collaboration “One Kiss” as well as the Silk City track “Electricity.”
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To warm you up for Lipa’s iHeartRadio Canada Jingle Ball performance, here are 10 things to know about her!
- She was born in London to Albanian parents Dukagjin and Anesa, who immigrated from Kosovo, in the 1990s. Dua moved to Kosovo with her family in 2008 but returned to London a few years later to pursue her dreams of being a singer.
- She has a sister named Rina and a brother named Gjin. Her father trained as a dentist but is also the lead singer in a rock band called Oda.
- Among the songs she has covered is “Here” by Canada’s Alessia Cara. Dua has also singled out Canada’s Nelly Furtado as an early influence. "I really liked [her] bad bitch attitude. It made me want to identify myself with [her],” she told Glamcult in 2016.
- In a March 2018 tweet, she shared an X-ray showing that she has 33 teeth. Most humans have no more than 32. “I’ve always been an overachiever,” she joked.
- She co-wrote 10 of the 12 tracks on her 2017 self-titled debut album. The two she didn’t have a hand in? The lead single “Be the One” and her smash hit “New Rules.”
- She once worked as a waitress and she was also signed to Next Model Management.
- She was the opening act for Troye Sivan’s Suburbia tour in 2016, which included dates in Toronto and Montreal. “He’s the sweetest person I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with,” Dua told Gay Times in 2016. “It didn’t feel like a support tour, it felt like every night we were going out and doing a mini-show.”
- In 2017, she won Brit Awards for Breakthrough Act and Female Solo Artist.
- The video for “New Rules” has had nearly 1.5 billion views on YouTube. Dua was the youngest female artist to have a video hit 1 billion views.
- She took to Instagram in September 2018 to say she was “horrified” to see that fans waving rainbow flags at her Shanghai concert were roughed up. “I will stand by you all for your love and beliefs and I am proud and grateful that you felt safe enough to show your pride at my show,” Dua wrote. “What you did takes a lot of bravery.”