There are not many musical acts for whom a 2,800-capacity gig can be billed as “intimate”, but Dua Lipa is one. In the four years since the English pop star last toured Australia, playing a handful of small headline gigs and supporting Bruno Mars, Lipa has become one of the most pervasive voices in pop: even if you don’t know any of her songs by name, you’ve likely heard her upbeat dancefloor anthems and cheeky songs about bad boyfriends countless times.
On Sunday night the 27-year-old performed a one-off show in St Kilda’s Palais Theatre put on by the Victorian government’s Always Live initiative, which has an excellent track record of luring local and international acts to perform in the aftermath of Covid lockdowns – most notably getting the likes of Foo Fighters and Nick Cave out of the capital and into the regions. More than 25,000 people registered for the ballot to get tickets for Lipa’s St Kilda show, which promised to be an opportunity for 2,800 fans to get “up close and personal” with the star before a run of stadium gigs around Australia. But what did that mean? Would the queen of flirty disco be breaking out a guitar?
