Dua Lipa debuts musical comeback with ‘Houdini’

Dua Lipa broke the ice after weeks of suspense.

After mysterious teases and puzzling for weeks, Dua Lipa has now formally announced that her new song, Houdini, will be out on November 9.

As part of her highly anticipated new album, Dua gave a hint that new music would soon be released when she deleted all previous content from her Instagram and TikTok accounts.

She also changed the thumbnails for her streaming channels and her profile picture on X (formerly known as Twitter) to an identical kaleidoscope-style image.

She also started posting video snippets of herself with a gold key in her mouth and number riddles earlier this week, which prompted many to assume the single's (at the time unnamed) title was a reference to the Hungarian-American illusionist Harry Houdini.

The Grammy-winning album Future Nostalgia, which was released in March 2020, was Dua's penultimate release. 

Pop radio staples like Don't Start Now and Levitating replaced the latter, and Dua has been hinting about her third album since early 2022, when she revealed to Elton John that it was halfway done on her Dua Lipa: At Your Service podcast.

“It’s taken a complete turn as I’ve carried on working, and I really feel now that it’s starting to sound cohesive,” she told Variety late last year of the album.

“So I’m going to keep writing in the early months of the new year and see where that takes me. The album is different — it’s still pop but it’s different sonically, and there’s more of a lyrical theme. If I told you the title, everything would make sense — but I think we’ll just have to wait.”