Lipa Rebels

Lore & Background

After figuring out the title of her second studio album, Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa began working backwards, figuring out the sound she desired. Shortly after, "Levitating" was written, which is the first track recorded that appears on the album's final track listing. The song was written by Lipa with her longtime collaborators Clarence Coffee Jr. of The Monsters & Strangerz, Sarah Hudson and Stephen Kozmeniuk, the latter of which also handled the production. Before going into the studio, Kozmeniuk spent a few weeks coming up with ideas to play in the studio, eventually thinking it would be cool to create a "slinky disco track." Lipa sent him some notes and stuff that she was inspired by, which became the idea of blending old with new. Kozmeniuk thought the best way to create this idea was to use old instruments, one of which was a Roland VP-330 synthesizer, which he had been looking for, for seven to eight years. After shipping the synthesizer from Tokyo to Toronto, he immediately plugged it in and began playing. The first thing he played, which he described as a "synthetic choir sound", later turned into the synth line from the song. He looped the sound and began building a song around it, including creating an analog string sound, also using the Roland VP-330. "Levitating" was written and recorded in a one-day studio session at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London between the four writers on 28 August 2018. They started the session by Hudson doing a Tarot card reading in order for the writers to open up about what was happening in their lives. Lipa recalled it "changing the energy in the room." Kozmeniuk then began playing some tracks he had created with Lipa in mind. "Levitating" was one of the first tracks he played, which the collaborators all agreed that it would be the one to write onto. Lipa took out the voice memos app on her phone and began leading the song by singing a melody, making it up on the way with Coffee later elevating it. They had the visuals of being in an Austin Powers movie, with Mike Myers doing a random dance to the song, which helped give them a mood while writing the lyrics. The session ended up with the collaborators ordering doughnuts and 'levitating' from the sugar rush. They immediately began writing after that, with a good feeling going into it. They decided to include the "sugarboo" lyric as an ode to their friendship as it was something they called one another as a joke. Lipa also decided to add a rap in order to get her British side across, because she often gets mistaken from where she is actually from. Lipa began by recording the lead vocals, and later some backing vocals and vocals with all the collaborators. They would create different personas with different vocals every time they recorded them. Lipa recalled that she and her co-writers were dancing all through making the song, even if they were experiencing writer's block or working on the production. After finishing the song, Lipa enlisted the help of Stuart Price for some additional production. He brought more "bounce" to the song and helped with the bass groove. He also incorporated a high drone synth as a disco trope, and a string part in the pre-chorus. Koz later also enlisted the help of Bosko "Electrospit" Kante to play a talk box. "Levitating" helped dictate what the rest of Future Nostalgia would sound like and where Lipa thought everything made sense, where she had both the "future" and "nostalgia" elements. She called it the "starting point" of the album.

Reader's Guide

"Levitating" was promoted with the release of two music videos, one for each of its respective remixes. The Will Hooper-directed music video for the Blessed Madonna's remix was filmed in London and Atlanta and has a theme of "love conquers all". It sees many people under the influence of a mysterious planet and being obsessed with a maze-like symbol. The DaBaby remix received a music video that was directed by Warren Fu and created in partnership with social media platform TikTok. The video is centred around Lipa and DaBaby dancing in an art deco-styled elevator, with many TikTok users in the cast. Lipa promoted the single with live performances on The Graham Norton Show, at the American Music Awards of 2020, and on Saturday Night Live. "Levitating" is an electro-disco, nu-disco, pop-funk and space rock song, with dance-pop and power pop elements. The song incorporates music styles from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s pop and R&B. Constructed in verse–chorus form, the song runs for 3 minutes and 23 seconds and is composed in 4/4 time and the key of B minor, with a tempo of 103 beats per minute and a chord progression of Bm7—F♯m7—Em7. It is built around a wonky synth hook, with 1990s choruses and several campy disco tropes. The rest of the production consists of funky synth disco beats, a "squelchy" bass, "rubbery" basslines, syncopated handclaps, nu-disco rhythms, "wonky" and "bizarre" synths, an EDM groove, funky guitars, talk box vocals, a "hypnotic" synth line and disco strings. The bass, guitars, and talk box give off a disco-funk feeling. Following the first chorus, the instruments are stripped back. On his remix, DaBaby adds a new pop rap verse and intro, over the original's production, with him serving as an additional writer on the track. Lipa's vocals range from F♯3 to B4. The middle eight includes a Blondie-influenced rap, where Lipa exerts her British accent, before she performs an a cappella ahead of the final chorus. "Levitating" has many outer space references, using an exaggerated metaphor of love as a spaceship to transmit radiant euphoria and happiness. Lyrically, the song sees Lipa exposing her feelings for a significant other and singing about moments with them in which she is her best self. For NME, Rhian Daly stated she sings about "a love 'written in the stars'", while 411Mania's David Hayter, labelled it an "intergalactic ode to orgasms". The song received many comparisons to the works of Chic, Daft Punk, Debbie Harry, the Jackson 5 ("Blame It on the Boogie", 1978), Kylie Minogue, Moloko, Kate Nash, Outkast ("Rosa Parks", 1998), Katy Perry, the Spice Girls, Tinie Tempah ("Pass Out", 2010), the Weeknd (Starboy, 2016), and Super Mario 64 (1996) sound effects.

Did You Know?

• The "sugarboo" lyric was included as an inside joke among the collaborators, something they called each other.
• Despite never reaching number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, "Levitating" was named the top song on the 2021 year-end chart, the first single to do so since Lifehouse's "Hanging by a Moment" in 2001.