Concert Reviews

Dua Lipa at the Mod Club

Photographs by Janine Van Oostrom.

I have a theory that Dua Lipa was sent from the music gods down from the heavens to save pop music. While I don’t entirely have the evidence to back that up, to me she represents everything that pop music should be. We are living in an age of pop that is oversaturated with lackluster vocals overtop of overused dance tracks; it’s boring and getting old very fast. Yet Lipa separates herself from the crowd in every possible way and for that I could not be more grateful. 

If one were to find themselves walking down College street passed the Mod Club on this brisk monday night they would find themselves walking passed what seemed to be an endless line of people waiting to get into the venue. Now I’ve seen a lot of lineups for shows before and some fairly decent ones at that but nothing and I mean nothing would beat the line of people waiting to get in to see Lipa. When walking past you could literally see the dedication that her fans possessed (a type of dedication that I have only seen from the big shot bands like The 1975). Yet once you braved the line and finally found yourself inside of the Mod Club a feeling of immense anticipation was quick to overwhelm you, honestly I think the fans were oozing it like some sort of pheromone. Yet the wait wasn’t long and within an hour the opener, Ro Ransom, was on the stage and getting the crowd hyped and ready for Lipa.

After the entertaining opening set, time seemed to have completely stopped all together as the seconds before Lipa hit the stage dragged on and on and on. Then finally like a goddess Lipa took to the stage. Sparkling from head to toe she kicked the night off with “Last Dance” and from there she went to play a diverse mix of unreleased and released songs. One of the most exciting parts of the night was when Lipa announced she would be playing a new song and then went on to sing “Scared To Be Lonely”. Not only was this Toronto crowd the first ones to ever hear this song live but it was also truly amazing to see how she translated the song from EDM to playing it with a live band. 

As a member of the crowd one of the most wonderful things that I noticed was the fact that even though most of the songs on her setlist can only be found within the depths of youtube the fans still knew every single word. This may be partly due to the fact that the average Dua Lipa fan is probably around the age of 15 and this type of extreme dedication is second nature to them. Or it could also be due to the fact that Lipa is simply just that captivating; it really comes down to the fact that she is almost too easy to become obsessed with. She then translates this perfectly into her live show with they way that she interacts with the fans, twirls around endlessly in her sparkly dress, and obviously how her vocals not even for the slightest millisecond are anything but perfect. 

If I have one piece of advice for anyone out there it would be to keep your eyes locked on Dua Lipa. Between her stunning vocals, masterfully crafted pop songs, and her captivating presence Lipa is going to be the next big thing; mark my words.

About author

Long suffering student by day. Music writer by night.