Dua Lipa Has Seen All Your Silly Memes

On Tuesday, Rolling Stone unveiled its latest cover star to be none other than Dua Lipa. As per usual, the accompanying story is laden with amusing anecdotes about Margot Robbie’s crush’s deeply relatable thoughts on dating, her curiosity for the macabre, and some scintillating details about her forthcoming album. Though the terminally online might be most interested in one particular confession: She’s seen your silly little memes and one of them very much hurt her feelings.

In 2018, a clip of Lipa’s performance of “One Kiss” at Lollapalooza in Berlin went viral thanks to some…choice choreography. One specific online comment later and that moment became known as the “Go Girl, Give Us Nothing” meme. Apparently, it’s been a bit of a pain point for Lipa ever since. I hope you all are very proud of yourselves!

“There was this one little dance routine that I did when I was performing, and people took that one little snippet and decided to base my whole stage presence and who I was as a performer on stage,” Dua told NPR in 2022. Well, she brought it up again to RS.

“I did find that really hurtful, and I found it really painful because I was like, ‘I’m finally getting to do something that I love to do, and I’m being shut down, that I just can’t seem to do anything right,’” she explained. “Not only that, but I was also being thrown around the world. Lots of promos, lots of rehearsing, lots of everything, and not having really time to perfect anything.” Frankly, I don’t blame her. If a video of me doing what appeared to be the twist while in the middle of a dissociative episode became a viral meme that’s withstood the test of time, I’d be a little peeved too.

“It’s always so easy with social media to get caught up in a negative spiral or people being mean, telling you what they think about you without really knowing you at all,” Lipa continued. “It’s already so far-fetched, maybe, for some people to think that you have feelings or that you get upset. For me, I think it’s just important to be able to take things with a pinch of salt.” Perhaps I’m wrong, but it very much seems as if she’s not taking this particular meme with a pinch of salt, given it’s been nearly six years and she’s still reflecting on it. Because I know we all hold onto things, however, I’m empathetic to her sodium intolerance on this one!

Later in the interview, Lipa emphatically calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and vents her frustration that more political figures with—arguably—more power than a pop star aren’t on the same page.

“I feel so bad for every Israeli life lost and what happened on Oct. 7. At the moment, what we have to look at is how many lives have been lost in Gaza, and the innocent civilians, and the lives that are just being lost,” she said. “There are just not enough world leaders that are taking a stand and speaking up about the humanitarian crisis that’s happening, the humanitarian ceasefire that has to happen.”

Go girl, give us…a lot more than the overwhelming majority of pop stars are giving us right now.