Dua Lipa reveals she wants to emulate Madonna by ‘peaking in her 40s’

Dua Lipa has revealed she wants to emulate Madonna by peaking in her 40s.

The pop princess, 24, declared she wants to continue to dominate the music charts for ‘as long as I can’, before she retires ‘with a couple of dogs and takes up smoking again’.

During an interview with songwriter Chelcee Grimes on her podcast What We Coulda Been, the singer said she’s been enjoying the ‘stillness’ of the coronavirus lockdown after spending just 22 nights at home in 2018 due to her demanding career. 

The media personality enthused about following in the footsteps of icon Madonna, 61, who has topped the charts ever since her first album, released in 1983.

She stated: ‘I want to do this for as long as I can. I feel like Madonna peaked at 40 or 45 and made the best pop album known, and she continues to kill it.’

In April, the One Kiss hitmaker revealed she went teetotal, cut down on smoking and quit dairy in bid to protect her voice.

Dua insisted she aims to give up her health kick once she retires, admitting : ‘Women, we can do it for as long as we want to. And then at some point I’ll retire with a couple of dogs and take up smoking again.’

The songstress has been spending time with her boyfriend Anwar Hadid, the brother of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, during the COVID-19 pandemic – a time she has credited for improving her ‘patience’.

She said: ‘I’m good. I’ve been working remotely as much as I can. It’s been weird to be in London for such a long time. I don’t think I’ve spent this much time here for five or six years.

‘When I counted in 2018 how many days I slept in my bed in London, it was 22, and that was on and off for the whole year. I have definitely beaten that record already in 2020.

‘I’m learning to enjoy this stillness. Everything has been so go, go, go. I am learning to be more patient, I’m learning that nothing is as urgent as it has seemed for the past few years.

Confessing she’s struggled adjusting to some of the changes the crisis has brought to her lifestyle, Dua added: ‘I am learning that I can do more stuff at home. 

‘I do really miss travelling and being on the road, and doing TV performances from home has been a challenge.’ 

The Grammy-winning superstar revealed she got a ‘patience’ tattoo on her hand to remind her that ‘everything takes time’, and said the moment she realised she’d go far is when she took to the stage at Glastonbury in 2017, just a few weeks after she realised her self-titled debut studio album.  

She said: ‘I was still thinking, “Can I do this?” when I got up on stage at Glastonbury in 2017. 

‘My album had just come out and moments before I went on stage I looked out and there weren’t many people and I was like, “S***, maybe no one is going to show up”. 

‘Then the moment I went on stage, it was completely full and it was raining and people were still outside waiting and watching me, and I was like, “Maybe this could happen”! 

 

‘The success I’ve had is more than I ever imagined was possible. To be really honest, I never thought I would get this far.

‘Not because I didn’t think I could, but because I didn’t know something like this was possible.

‘Now I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. I’ve always wanted to do music and it almost felt like my life depended on it. I wanted to do it so badly it was like, ”I have to make this work”.’