The truth about Dua Lipa’s parents

Dua Lipa is currently one of the hottest names in pop music. At just 26 years of age and only five years into her music career, she has numerous accolades to her name including three Grammy Awards, five BRIT Awards, and one American Music Award.

While her professional success is on the rise, the Future Nostalgia pop star remains grounded as a family person. She brought her family to the 2019 BRIT Awards where her parents made their first public appearance.

However, there are few revelations about her family and their early days’ struggle which many may not be aware of. So, let’s dive into the details of Dua Lipa’s parents.

On 22nd August 1995, Dua Lipa was born in London to Kosovar-Albanian parents, Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa. Her parents’ origin can be traced back to Pristina, Yugoslavia which is present-day Kosovo. She has two younger siblings, Rina (sister) and Gjin (brother).

To go further back in time, her mother, Anesa, was born to a Kosovan father and a Bosnian mother. On the other hand, her father, Dukagjin, was born to a notable historian, Seit Lipa, who was heading the Kosovo Institute of History at the time. Hence, Lipa is of Bosnian descent from her maternal side.

Lipa’s parents came as refugees to London in 1992, following the conflict in Kosovo, to escape the Bosnian war.

Lipa was not the only one who was musically inclined in her family. In fact, she derives her musical influence from her father, Dukagjin, who was in a Kosovan rock band, Oda.

She recalls her father playing the band’s music as well as songs of other artists at home throughout her childhood. To name a few, she grew up listening to her father’s collection of David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Sting, and Radiohead records. She told HungerTV;

“My father is a musician from Kosovo, so I’ve always grown up around music at home. Whether that’s my dad’s songs or Sting, David Bowie, Stereophonics. But the first albums that I fell in love with myself were Whoa, Nelly! By Nelly Furtado and Missundaztood by Pink when I was about six. They were significant parts of my life, and I still reference them when I go into the studio now.”

She started singing at the age of five and attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School when she was nine to receive singing lessons. However, it came to a stop when she was 13 as her family moved back to Kosovo for her father’s new job.

From a young age, she was persistent about singing and she convinced her parents to let her move back to London to pursue a singing career after living in Kosovo for only two years. In a 2016 interview with BBC, she said;

“I guess it was scary for them when I moved out of home at 15. But for me, it was the best time of my life!”

A teenaged Dua Lipa worked in restaurants, and nightclubs to provide for herself in the city.

“When I was 15, my parents gave me an allowance, but then when I was 16, I started working as a nightclub hostess, then in a restaurant. I walked Channing Tatum and his wife to a table once. Good times!”

In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, her mother said that Dua had “everything planned” and that “it was her destiny” all along.

“I want to do music, but I want to do it on a global scale. I have to go back to where everything is happening. And that for me was London,” Dua told CBS Sunday Morning.

Although her father has left behind his music days and currently works as a marketing manager, there is no doubt that he propelled Dua’s love for pop-punk music and contributed to her growth as an artist.

While in Kosovo, Dukgajin was studying dentistry and Anesa was a law student. But things changed when the political conflict came to a head in their homeland and they fled to London seeking refuge, uprooting their lives from Kosovo.

Settling in the new country meant finding employment as waiters in restaurants and cafes. Simultaneously, they were studying to find better prospects, as Lipa’s father enrolled in business courses while her mother trained in travel and tourism. As of today, Anesa works in the tourism industry

“I’ve seen my parents work every day of my life. While I was going to school, they were going to school,” Dua told The Guardian.

Learning from her family’s experience, she believes in the importance of working hard to achieve her dreams. When asked by The Guardian if she truly believes in her mantra of ‘chase your dreams/magic is real’, she answered;

“A big part of who I am has been watching my parents learn to adapt in different places, in different circumstances… And my dad would always tell me, ‘You have to work really, really hard, just to have a tiny bit of luck.’ So, to answer your question, I do believe in the romantic side of it. And I believe in the hard graft, too.”