Dua Lipa was once cut from her school choir because she couldn’t deliver a “crazy high note”.
The ‘Training Season’ singer was left red-faced when her audition fell flat in front of the “whole school”, however she was later welcomed back to join the “lower range” section of the choir.
Appearing on Trixie Mattel’s YouTube channel, she recalled: “The music teacher was like—it was an assembly—‘Alright, who wants to sing and try out for the choir?’
“I went, ‘Y’know what? I’d like to actually do that.’ So, I decided to stand up for the whole school, and he started playing on the piano. It was in this crazy high note, and nothing came out—just air. And the whole school started laughing.
“And he was like, ‘You know what? Better luck next time.’ That was it.”
She continued: “Later on, I was part of the choir, but I was in the lower range.”
The pop star credits her theatre schoolteacher with transforming her into the confident singer she is today.
Dua added: “I went to singing lessons in a theatre school every Saturday in London and it was the teacher there that helped me build up my confidence.”
This June, Dua will headline Glastonbury festival for the first time.
The ‘Levitating’ hitmaker has her third album ‘Radical Optimism’ coming out on May 3, a few weeks before the festival.
She said in a statement: “A couple of years ago, a friend introduced me to the term ‘Radical Optimism’.
“It’s a concept that resonated with me, and I became more curious as I started to play with it and weave it into my life.
“It struck me – the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm.
“At the same time, I found myself looking through the music history of psychedelia, trip-hop, and Britpop. It has always felt so confidently optimistic to me, and that honesty and attitude is a feeling I took into my recording sessions.”
The album cover sees Dua in the ocean as a shark swims nearby.
Tracks on the record – which is the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ – include ‘French Exit’, ‘Maria’, and ‘Falling Forever’, as well as the previously released singles ‘Houdini’ and ‘Training Season’.
Dua previously explained her new record “captures a period of major changes in her life, including the end of a relationship and her forays into dating.”
She told Rolling Stone magazine: “This record feels a bit more raw.
“I want to capture the essence of youth and freedom and having fun and just letting things happen, whether it’s good or bad. You can’t change it. You just have to roll with the punches of whatever’s happening in your life.”