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Dua Lipa wins Best Female and Best Album

Is ambition alone the key to success? Dua Lipa is arguably the world’s most talented young female music star. At yesterday’s Brit Awards, she added another jewel to her crown. It was a big night forn Dua Lipa, and for London. Covid-19 precautions meant that the 02 Arena was filled to just a fifth of its capacity - but the fact that 4,000 people were able to meet up without social distancing or face masks was a cause for major celebration. And nothing thrilled the Brit Awards audience more than seeing the British-Kosovan singer collect two of the night's main prizes. There is no denying that the 25-year-old is on a roll. In March she won the GrammyThe Grammys, short for "Gramophone Awards", are the musical equivalent of the Oscars. The first ever awards were held in 1959. for best pop vocal album with Future Nostalgia, which was also the most successful UK album of 2020, selling over 265,000 copies. The lead single from it, Don't Start Now, has been streamed almost two billion times. According to the head of her record label, Warner Brothers: "What we're seeing is the dawning of a new superstar." Lipa is also emblematicSymbolic. An emblem was originally a badge or ornament representing a quality, family or organisation. of London's cosmopolitan spirit. Her father was studying dentistry and her mother law when political upheaval in KosovoA landlocked country in the Balkans in southeast Europe. It has a population of 1.87 million. forced them to flee the country in 1992. In Britain, they had to start all over again, working at multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. Their daughter's talent was already evident by the age of nine, when she started taking lessons at a theatre school where Amy Winehouse had been a student. Within a few weeks, she had been moved up to a class full of teenagers. Two years later the family moved back to Pristina. But Lipa felt that she needed to be in "a place where everything was happening", and at 15 persuaded her parents to return to London on her own, staying with a family friend while she finished school. During that time, she showed extraordinary self-discipline: "Do homework, have a shower, do my poetry - I would have a time scheduled for everything." Her approach to her career was equally hard-headed. Offered a contract as a model, she accepted even though the work did not appeal to her: "I was like, 'OK, this is something that maybe could help me get out there.'" She was right: it led to a singing role in an ad for The X Factor, which brought her to the attention of a producer who had worked with Ed Sheeran. She continued to work as a waitress as she embarked on a professional music career. When she quit, she did so very politely, assuming that she might eventually have to go back to her old job. She released her first single in 2015. A couple of months later her second, Be The One, reached number one in three European countries. The following year she made the charts in Britain and the US, and in 2017 New Rules became her first UK number one. By the age of 22, her stardom was indisputable: she received five nominations in the 2018 Brit Awards, and her duet with Calvin Harris, One Kiss, was the year's biggest-selling UK single. "I've always been persistent, and I've always fought for the things that I've wanted," she says. "So as much as this was my passion, I feel like it was also my destiny." Is ambition alone the key to success? Drive to thrive Some say, yes. There are any number of talented people who go unrecognised because they do not push themselves hard enough. Lipa herself says: "I'm extremely hardworking and driven, and I feel like that's the reason why I got to where I am." Equally, there are many people who have got a long way on very little talent, thanks to their ability to elbow their way to the fore. Others argue that the world is full of ambitious people who have failed to realise their dreams because they do not have enough basic ability. Lipa owes her success in part to her drive, but it would count for nothing if she were not a great singer and gifted songwriter. The fact is that you need both ambition and talent to make your mark in life. KeywordsGrammy - The Grammys, short for "Gramophone Awards", are the musical equivalent of the Oscars. The first ever awards were held in 1959.

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