Dua Lipa’s ‘Studio 2054’ live-stream was almost hacked by cybercriminals.
The ‘Don’t Start Now’ hitmaker’s star-studded virtual event – which included appearances from Kylie Minogue, Sir Elton John and Miley Cyrus – fortunately, went ahead with no hiccups after technicians managed to thwart the attack.
James Sutcliffe of LiveNow, who hosted the stream, told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “We were the victims of a cyber attack at the start of the show.
“The years of experience our tech team had streaming live sports events meant they were ready to deal with that. The stream didn’t go down, users didn’t notice anything and we delivered a huge show to a huge audience.”
The show-stopping concert last year pulled in millions of viewers – including over 1.9 million unique log-ins from China, 95,000 from India, and over 263,200 tickets sold on regular ticketing platforms.
Dua tweeted at the time: “I am BEYOND excited to let you know that Studio 2054 had over 5 MILLION viewers globally on Friday night !!! – thank you so much to everyone for tuning in!!
“I’m also so happy to announce that we’ve kept the show available to watch until Sunday !! !! !! (sic)”
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old pop megastar is set to return the favour by joining Elton and his husband David Furnish for the annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party.
The ‘Levitating’ hitmaker will be performing a stripped-back set at the virtual event on April 25, which will be hosted by 47-year-old actor Neil Patrick Harris, with other names still yet to be announced.
For the first time ever, supporters of the Foundation have been invited to attend the famed Oscar party virtually with a special 60-minute pre-show, which will be powered by Cisco Webex to securely bring the event to live audiences.
Dua said: “It’s such an honour to be a part of one of the most iconic Oscar Parties and I’m really proud to support the Elton John AIDS Foundation to help tackle the stigma that exists around HIV as we need to build a kinder and more accepting world together. And to share the stage with Elton John will be a dream come true!”