Looking for a personal anthem? Perhaps a song that just makes you want to dance?
Dua Lipa is in the business of making both.
Back in May of 2023, Lipa released her song “Dance The Night” for the Barbie movie. Since then, it’s been consistently climbing the musical charts, all the way to number one on Billboard’s Pop Airplay Charts, thanks to Lipa’s 70s disco vibes.
The song, which has hit over 123 million views on YouTube (thanks in large part to Lipa’s 22.2 million subscribers), features a sparkly, Barbie-themed music video that finds Lipa declaring that nothing, including relationship issues, will come in the way of her and the dance floor.
It’s not necessarily a negative thing that Lipa enjoys dancing, even when she’s upset or out of harmony with her current love interest. In fact, she claims she’s quite resilient (“my heart could be burnin’, but you won’t see it on my face”), and she shows that resiliency by choosing to “dance the night away”.
On the other hand, it can be argued that dancing “the night away” and pretending everything is fine (“lately, I’ve been moving close to the edge/Still be lookin’ my best”), instead of dealing with your problems can be, well, problematic (I’ll still keep the party runnin’, not one hair out of place”).
Lipa tells her love interest that he should dance with her not only to help her cast her cares aside, but because her outfit is enticing (“Oh, my outfit so tight”).
The song and music video alike include the word “d–n,” which is used multiple times.
In the music video (featuring Lipa and Margo Robbie), Lipa and other dancers sport short skirts, cleavage-baring tops and some sensual dance moves.
I told you above that this song was made for the Barbie movie soundtrack, which means that the themes here, though they could certainly apply to Lipa’s own life and her “dance the night away” anthems, for which she’s famous, are probably more about the movie itself and Barbie as a character than Lipa. But, it could be both.
The movie shows how Barbie was always expected to be perfect, but then learned just how unreal those expectations are for everyone. And Lipa recognizes in this song that she’s choosing “happiness,” and a fake form of perfection, despite her sorrow or sadness.
These themes are present and worth working through. But still, the bulk of this song includes profanity and finds Lipa enticing a lover and dancing away her problems, even when she should face them head on.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
