Dua Lipa knows all about fantasy escapism. She has the most famous photo dumps on Instagram, full of snapshots from her vacations, late nights, and most recently her stops on the Radical Optimism tour. During her latest show in Auckland, New Zealand, the singer performed a cover of local legend Lorde‘s luxury fantasy hit “Royals.”
Lorde is the latest artist to get the cover treatment on the Radical Optimism tour. Last week, Lipa welcomed Kevin Parker to the stage in Sydney to perform Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know the Better,” having previously performed “Rush” with Troye Sivan and “Riptide” with Vance Joy. Like with “Royals,” not every cover has been accompanied by a special guest. Lipa went solo for her renditions of classics from INXS, Kylie Minogue, and AC/DC.
Back in 2018, Lipa named Lorde’s Melodrama single “Liability” as a song she wished she had written. “I think she’s brilliant and such a great songwriter and that song, it hits home,” she said at the time.
Lorde has been slowly emerging from solitude over the past few months as she teases the music she’s been working on since 2021’s Solar Power. In September, she joined Charli XCX on stage at Madison Square Garden to perform their “Girl, so confusing” remix from Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat. Lipa also appeared on that record for a remix of “Talk Talk.”
Lipa shared during a recent performance that the covers portion of her set is quickly becoming one of her favorite parts of the show. The Radical Optimism tour continues later this week with a second show at Auckland’s Spark Arena, which wraps the first leg of the tour. Lipa will pick back up in Spain on May 11.
“You make the album, you promote it, you go on tour, you do the same thing, and that’s so amazing, but I think there’s going to come a point where maybe I want to take just a little bit longer [in between],” Lipa told Rolling Stone last year. “I have all these other things that I can also do that really interest me.”
