Dua Lipa, who just two years earlier was anointed best new artist at the Grammys, took the stage like a well-established queen on Sunday’s telecast with a performance that matched together her two biggest hits, “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating” — and joined her with one of hip-hop’s reigning stars, DaBaby.
The two-song medley included not one, not two, but three wardrobe changes as Lipa transformed from a purple gown to a sequined jacket to a stylish two-piece. The singer and her masked dancers were matching in glittering, purple attire in front of a background that transitioned from a cloudy sky to solar eclipse to full moon.
DaBaby did not have to settle for mere “featured” status on the telecast; he’d appeared minutes earlier as the headliner of a performance slot that had him joined by Roddy Ricch on “Rockstar.”
Unlike her compeтιтor in several categories, Taylor Swift, Lipa has performed publicly a good deal behind her album of the year contender “Future Nostalgia,” possibly upping the ante in some fans’ minds for how she would go beyond the TV and livestream performances they’ve already seen.
