Do Start Now (Watching Dua Lipa’s Fallon Performance)

Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Do Start Now (Watching Dua Lipa’s Fallon Performance)

Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Don’t Start Now,” the ebullient disco track that serves as the lead single from Dua Lipa’s highly anticipated sophomore album Future Nostalgia, is one of those pop songs that ingratiates itself immediately. We named it the best song of the week when it dropped, and it came very close to topping my list of 2019’s best pop songs. And although I’m fairly certain its charms are irresistible, if you needed another pass to decide you like it, Lipa provided that chance on The Tonight Show last night.

Lipa sat for an interview with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday’s show, the one for which James Blake served as the musical guest. During the interview, she teased a string-laden performance for Thursday, and that’s exactly what she delivered. The string and percussion sections lifted “Don’t Start Now” to such euphoric heights that you might confuse it for an old Curtis Mayfield production or one of the psychedelic Philly soul excursions that topped the charts in the ’70s.

Maybe I am overselling it. I don’t know. What I do know is the song is great, and you will not regret watching Lipa perform it.

Future Nostalgia can’t come soon enough.

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