Billie Reviews: Dua Lipa - Auckland Night One.
What a time to be alive.
There has never been a better time for so many young women to get to look up to incredible female artists– I mean we literally have the Powerpuff girls in Chappel Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Charlie XCX. (And ahead of NZ Music Month in May, you can expect to see us celebrating the up-and-coming homegrown talent Aotearoa has to offer!)
But last night was about one woman – the incredible Dua Lipa. I was lucky enough to be asked by Spark Arena to DJ the VIP pre-parties for both events (and will be DJing the afterparty at The Tuning Fork for you over 18s after the last show on Friday!), and I saw so many young girls with their parents donned in glitter. With all of them, I spoke about the same thing – how lucky we are to have so many incredible female artists to look up to right now.
The last time Dua Lipa graced Auckland with her soulful pop tunes was back in 2022, and I was lucky enough to experience the ‘Future Nostalgia’ tour. What Dua brought to the 2025 ‘Radical Optimism’ tour was nothing short of Hollywood perfection. The staging, the costumes, the choreography, the live remixes of her powerful catalogue of music… she has clearly levelled up in her many years of global superstardom since our last show.
Dua took control of every piece of the stage, from the beautifully lit arches against full-stage visual delivering powerful backgrounds throughout, to parading up and down to the catwalk down to the middle of the GA crowd, to also making sure that those to the left, right and back of the crowd had their time and felt seen.
I’ve been to a few shows at Spark Arena where I felt like the artist didn’t interact with the home crowd enough, but Dua blew it out of the park. After her first ‘set’, she popped off the front of the stage and interacted with the superfans crammed against the bar in the front row. She complimented young girls’ makeup, took selfies with other belated young girls, and even took a fan’s phone and sung her POWERFUL bridge of ‘Be The One’ directly into it (can’t wait to see that POV on TikTok soon!). She loves us, and we love her.
Throughout four acts and an encore, she delivered more than five new costumes dripping in crystals and glitter, world-class staging and visuals, and an incredibly talented band, dancers, back-up vocalists and crew.
Kicking off the Training Season in a tan crystalled bodysuit, she soon swept into Radical Optimism’s ‘End of an Era’ (personal fav) before travelling through her greatest hits and collaborations.
Act Two sees a very Taylor Swift-esque more ‘Acoustic’ set in the middle of the crowd, supported by her band who very cleverly learn a new song for the home crowd each night. For Wednesday’s first show, we were treated to Dua Lipa’s version of Lorde’s Royals. While it was sad to not see Lorde make an appearance after the likes of Troye Sivan and Vance Joy joined her in Australia, it was somewhat unsurprising after seeing her not join Charli XCX during her Laneway set in February this year.
I don’t want to spoil the full set list for those who are still to experience her live show on Friday 4th April 2025, but what I will say is that you won’t regret ‘dancing the night away’ for a second. If you’re able to snap up a legitimate ticket (don’t trust any unofficial resellers please!), I would highly recommend it. I can’t wait to see what her night two acoustic song will be– and whether a local artist will bravely step up to the plate!
Billie will forever be thankful to Dua for travelling to our corner of the earth putting on such an inspiring show, it would have been easy to not put on the full-scale production she did having to travel so far. Having announced new dates for the remainder of 2025 throughout the world, it’s clear New Zealand was treated to something special very early on.
Now if only we could get the likes of Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish to not skip Aotearoa on their next trip down under!
