Dua Lipa on how Kevin Parker and Danny L Harle helped her unlock Radical Optimism

The two were Dua's main architects in creating her third album.

Dua Lipa has opened up on how two of her most important collaborators on her upcoming third album Radical Optimism helped her unlock the sound and feel of the new record.

Due for release May 3, we've already got two tastes of Dua's next LP with the singles Houdini (which peaked at Number 2 on the Official Singles Chart) and Training Season (which peaked at Number 4). Both songs came with co-writes and production by Tame Impala's Kevin Parker (Lady Gaga, Rihanna) and Danny L Harle (Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek), and Dua says that it's the unlikely musical partnership between the two that helped her solidify everything.

As Dua tells it in a new interview with Variety, sessions for Radical Optimism started in earnest in 2021, during her tour for second album Future Nostalgia, but nothing really clicked until Dua met with Parker and Harle for the first time in June 2022, alongside co-writers Tobias Jesso Jr and Caroline Ailin.

"When Kevin and Danny came together and it was the live drums and the synths and the big music breakdown, in my head the big dance moment, when all those came together it was just a feeling," Dua said. "I had a feeling and I was like, now I have something to bounce off of."

This eureka moment came thanks to a new song on the record called Illusion, which Dua counts as one of big 'a-ha!' moments in recording, along with another track, Happy For You.

"Of course, it’s a pop record. I’m a pop artist, that’s what I do," Dua went on, "But I think overall, the different sounds that are being used, the different breaks in the music, the use of musical samples, whether that’s with Kevin’s voice or with the different instruments that we used [...] it was me going completely out of what I knew, and exploring something different."

She also clarified earlier comments that Radical Optimism was inspired by the music of Britpop, saying the freedom and expression of that period was more influential than the actual sonics of the era, although Dua once more reiterated that Massive Attack's Teardrop was a massive influence.

Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism album tracklisting:

1. End Of An Era
2. Houdini
3. Training Season
4. These Walls
5. Whatcha Doing
6. French Exit
7. Illusion
8. Falling Forever
9. Anything For Love
10. Maria
11. Happy For You

Radical Optimism by Dua Lipa drops May 3 via Warner. Houdini and Training Season are out now.