Dua Lipa on March 05, 2020 in London, England. (Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Queer ally Dua Lipa, not content with saving everyone stuck at home because of coronavirus by releasing Future Nostalgia early, has now rallied behind sex workers.
Future Nostalgia had already leaked online when Dua Lipa posted a tearful Instagram Live video, saying she was releasing it early and hoped it would make people smile and dance during the coronavirus pandemic.
And now, in an interview about the album with The Guardian, the global popstar spoke out for the first time about the night she spent in a strip club at Lizzo’s Grammys afterparty in LA.
At the time, Dua Lipa was accused of exploiting women under the hashtag #dualipaisoverparty and people online demanded she apologise – which she refused to do.
“I don’t like to apologise if I don’t believe I should be apologising for something,” Dua Lipa told The Guardian.
“I believe in supporting women in all fields of work. Nothing at that party was derogatory; everyone was just dancing and having fun,” the “Physical” singer added.
She said that she was surprised by people’s response, especially given how much more mainstream the fight for sex workers’ rights has become in recent years.
“That’s something we all have to work on,” she said.
“Not every sex worker is being forced to do something they don’t wanna do. I think a lot of the women found it really empowering and really like to dance.”
The English Collective of Prostitutes recently spoke out about the impact of coronavirus on sex workers.
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown sex workers into a “hidden crisis” that means sex work must immediately be decriminalised, the ECP said.
Dua Lipa said that she thought the criticism of her going to a strip club ties into the way that women’s work has historically been undermined.
“We all have to work a little bit harder to be taken seriously, but it’s not something that we’re not used to doing,” she said with a grin.
She added that this applies to pop music, too – and is why she has pointedly described Future Nostalgia as “fun” even though that is exactly the word critics will sue to pan it.
“Time always tells,” she said with a shrug.
“And in the meantime, I’ll just work for people to take me seriously.”