Dua Lipa reveals how she REALLY felt moving to London alone when she was just 15 while her family stayed behind in Kosovo

Dua Lipa has opened up about her experience moving to London after leaving her family home in Kosovo when she was just 15 years old.

Originally born in London to Kosovo Albanian parents who fled conflict and political instability in the Balkans, Dua left the UK in 2008 when her family moved to Pristina after Kosovo declared independence.

However, after a few years, the budding star decided to bravely return alone to the UK at just 15 years old to pursue her goal. dreams of pop stardom.

Appearing on The Graham Norton Show, which airs on Friday, Dua, 29, revealed how she really felt about returning to London alone.

She explained: ‘I returned to London from Kosovo on my own when I was 15 because there were more opportunities in music in London. It was a beautiful moment.’

When asked how she felt about taking such a big step at such a young age, the hitmaker revealed that despite her physical absence she still felt incredibly supported by her family.

‘I’m very close to my parents, who trusted me a lot, so I was as good as possible. “My family keeps me grounded in all this madness,” Dua revealed.

Dua returned to the UK in 2014 because she believed she needed to move if she wanted to break into the international music market.

Once back in London, he moved in with an older family friend in Camden and attended Parliament Hill School, where he gained four A-Levels in Politics, Psychology, English and Media Studies.

Despite the distance, Dua stayed close to her family and her mother even flew to London for parents’ evenings.

In addition to school and the occasional job modeling for ASOS and Topshop, the teenager took weekend classes at the Sylvia Young Theater School, whose students include Billie Piper, Amy Winehouse and Keeley Hawes, and filmed versions of pop songs for YouTube and SoundCloud.

Eventually, her videos caught the attention of Ben Mawson of Tap Management, who represents Ellie Goulding, Lana Del Rey and Leigh-Ann Pinnock of Little Mix.

Her original song Hotter Than Hell, which appeared on her self-titled debut album, led to her signing with Warner Bros. Records in 2014.

And it was clearly the right decision, as Dua has since toured the world with a number one album, won three Grammy Awards and six Brit Awards.

Talking about his latest job and releasing a second single ahead of a new album, he said: “There’s an album coming out soon.” I haven’t announced the title yet, but a lot of it will be more organic with live instrumentation.’

Joined by Oscar-winning actresses Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett, Hustle star Adrian Lester and pop superstar Justin Timberlake, Dua also discussed her appearance in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.

She joked: “It’s very embarrassing to talk about it sitting on a couch with important legendary actors, but I’m very proud of it and it was a lot of fun.”

Speaking about the hit song Dance the Night, he said: “We initially wrote it based on what Greta told us about the film and were leaning towards Barbie’s existential crisis and thoughts of death. “It was quite dark.

“Then we watched the movie and I changed it a little bit, so we decided to write the song as a score following the dance moves. The whole soundtrack is amazing.”

The Graham Norton Show, BBC One, Friday 23 February at 10.40pm. Also available on BBC iPlayer.