"They don't want you to be political. They don't want you to be smart” popstar Dua Lipa said, earlier this year. But with her political statements calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, and better rights for refugees from Europe, she’s determined to buck that trend. The chart-topping Londoner, 28, whose third album Radical Optimism is out this week ahead of headlining Glastonbury next month, is unusual within the current crop of top-tier popstars in that she doesn’t shy away from talking politics.
Three weeks into the Israeli invasion of Gaza last year, she signed an open letter to President Joe Biden and the U.S. Congress to push for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and the militant terror group Hamas. “I feel so bad for every Israeli life lost and what happened on Oct. 7,” she said in an interview later. She went on: “at the moment, what we have to look at is how many lives have been lost in Gaza…. There are just not enough world leaders that are taking a stand and speaking up about the humanitarian crisis that’s happening, the humanitarian cease-fire that has to happen.”
