Levitating Neon Style

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Lore & Background

This style emerged as the visual anchor for the Future Nostalgia album cycle. The album, released on 27 March 2020 by Warner Records, was inspired by the music Lipa enjoyed during her childhood and described as a "nostalgic" pop and disco record. The cover artwork, shot by French photographer Hugo Comte on 13 November 2019, features Lipa in a Googie-esque retro vehicle with a dark sky and blue moon behind her, wearing a 1950s-style pink shirt, gold hooped earrings, long white gloves, and her hair up in a bun. Comte noted that the whole concept is based on the transition between nostalgia and future. Lipa originally intended to call the album Glass House but settled on Future Nostalgia while on the way to a radio show in Las Vegas around the time of the 2018 American Music Awards, wanting to create a record with nostalgic memories of her childhood and put a modern spin on it with futuristic elements.

In Their Own Story

The lights dim as the bass kicks in. A velvet curtain parts to reveal a stage washed in electric blue and hot pink. She stands center, surrounded by dancers moving in synchronized retro steps. The air hums with energy, a digital dreamscape where time feels suspended between the past and tomorrow. This visual language extended beyond videos into live tours and merchandise, creating a cohesive brand identity that resonated with fans seeking escapism during uncertain times.

Reader's Guide

The aesthetic relies heavily on 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s nostalgia filtered through a modern lens, as Lipa took inspiration from music of those decades to create a sound that felt familiar and brand-new. Outfits often feature metallic fabrics, sharp tailoring, and vibrant accessories that catch the stage lights. Color palettes are dominated by high-contrast neons against darker backgrounds to create depth. The album's structure includes sticky-sweet choruses and catchy pop hooks, with campy productions consisting of funk bass guitars, electronic beats, rubbery basslines, robotic vocoder backing vocals, chunky synths, lush strings, percolating drums, house-influenced piano chords, and disco strings. Themes include the transformative nature of romance, sex, inequality, empowerment, self-possession, vulnerability, falling in love, breaking up, equality, hope, flirtation, and affection. Critics note similarities between the tracks and the works of Blondie, Chic, Daft Punk, Lady Gaga, Gloria Gaynor, Debbie Harry, Jamiroquai, Madonna (Confessions on a Dance Floor, 2005), Kylie Minogue (Fever, 2001), Moloko, Olivia Newton-John, No Doubt, Outkast, Prince, and Nile Rodgers.

Did You Know?

• The album's cover artwork was shot on 13 November 2019 by French photographer Hugo Comte, who had one song on repeat for each shot to get Lipa in the mood.
• Lipa originally intended to call the album Glass House before settling on Future Nostalgia while on the way to a radio show in Las Vegas around the time of the 2018 American Music Awards.
• The album was originally scheduled for release on 3 April 2020 but was moved forward to 27 March 2020 after leaking in its entirety two weeks earlier.
• Lipa recorded upwards of nearly 60 songs for the album, including unreleased collaborations with Max Martin, Nile Rodgers, Mark Ronson, and Pharrell Williams.
• The album won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards and was nominated for Album of the Year.