Dua Lipa reveals she was in a ‘bikini and cowboy hat’ when recruited by Elton John to collaborate

Dua Lipa revealed Elton John called when she was hanging out at the pool to ask her to collaborate on a song on Thursday night’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The 26-year-old singer, who wore a black halter dress with black knee high boots, said she was ‘in my bikini and cowboy hat’ when she answered the phone and it was Elton, 74, with his husband David Furnish. 

Dua said she immediately wanted to say yes to them but they instead listened first to the song Cold Heart before she committed. Dua said after she realized the song had elements from Rocket Man that she felt like she manifested the collaboration.

Hit song: Dua Lipa revealed Elton John called when she was hanging out at the pool to ask her to collaborate on a song on Thursday night’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

‘Rocket Man is my driving song’ she said. ‘It’s my shower song. It’s my song that I sing along to myself.’

‘Elton, I’m available too. I also know the lyrics to Rocket Man,’ Stephen quipped.

Stephen then asked her what it was like to have her explosive success with her album Future Nostalgia during the pandemic and not being able to go out and engage with her fans.

‘I worked on this album for so long,’ she said. ‘I was very passionate about it. I was very proud about it as well. It was a body of work where I finally felt like I’d found my confidence and who I was really as an artist and a songwriter.’

Pandemic album: Stephen then asked her what it was like to have her explosive success with her album Future Nostalgia during the pandemic

She said when everything shut down that she didn’t want to believe it and thought with so much uncertainty that maybe now it was the time to release the album. 

Dua said she has this philosophy that up until the music is released that it belongs to her and once it is out that it no longer does. She said she felt it was the perfect time to release it in the hopes that the songs find homes with other people.

She said people’s reaction was ‘mind-blowing’ and was beyond anything that she could have ever hoped for.

Music philosophy: Dua said she has this philosophy that up until the music is released that it belongs to her and once it is out that it no longer does

Mind blown: The Grammy-winning singer said people’s reaction was ‘mind-blowing’ and was beyond anything that she could have ever hoped for

Stephen said her song Levitating was an extraordinary success and asked her if she knew when she wrote it that the song would be the breakout hit.

‘Definitely not,’ Dua said. ‘I can never preempt what song people are going to react to the best but Levitating was the first song that helped dictate the rest of the album.

She said she had a powerful feeling after being in the studio writing the song with Sarah Hudson and [Clarence] Coffee that they all felt so energized and excited after.

Levitating song: Stephen said her song Levitating was an extraordinary success and asked her if she knew when she wrote it that the song would be the breakout hit

‘It was very special,’ she said.

Stephen asked her when she had originally planned on going on her world tour and she said April 2020. Almost two years later, Dua revealed that she was just about to go out on that tour but that it was going to be ‘massively different’ than what they originally planned and predominantly the Future Nostalgia tour.

Stephen then asked her about Service 95, a global concierge service that she has started. She said that she loves to keep a list of everything – restaurants, hotels, books etc. She said the idea behind it was that she wanted to share all her thoughts and recommendations in a newsletter. She said she also wanted to help give people the tools to help with activism. Stephen also said that she had an upcoming podcast called Dua Lipa At Your Service that would be released soon. She said she would be interviewing people on the podcast.

Concierge service: Stephen then asked her about Service 95, a global concierge service that she has started

New newsletter: Dua said the idea behind it was that she wanted to share all her thoughts and recommendations in a newsletter

Podcast soon: Stephen also said that she had an upcoming podcast called Dua Lipa At Your Service that would be released soon

Stephen said he knew that she subbed in for Jimmy Kimmel and told her that he could sub in for him anytime.

‘I’m exhausted,’ he said.

He asked her which he liked better being interviewed or interviewing people. She said she really likes interviewing people. He asked her if there was anything she wanted to ask him. She asked him if there was some relationship between his faith and his comedy profession. He told her that no matter what happens you are never defeated and to find some way to love and laugh with each other.

Good question: Dua asked him Stephen if there was some relationship between his faith and his comedy profession