Dua Lipa Reacts to Her Grammy Nominations

De Elizabeth
Updated
"It’s hard for me to put it into words."

The 2019 Grammy nominations were announced on Friday, December 7, and with them came a slew of reactions from musicians. Cardi B found out about her five noms while leaving court (and later tweeted that she wanted a do-over of the iconic moment), while Chloe x Halle tweeted “IS THIS REAL LIFE?!” in shock. And if you checked out Dua Lipa’s Instagram on the big day, you’ll know that she reacted with a lot of (happy) tears and squeals of joy.

In an interview with Billboard, Dua revealed that she learned of her two Grammy nominations in the middle of a meeting, when her phone started lighting up with multiple FaceTime requests. “I knew something had happened,” the singer explained.

As we saw in her video on Insta, Dua was “crying all morning” after hearing the news, telling Billboard that she even had to stop her meeting mid-tears. “I’m really excited and grateful and taken back by the response,” she said. “It’s hard for me to put it into words.”

But put it into words she did, explaining to Billboard that part of the excitement is being nominated in an industry that “has been dominated by men for such a long time.” The 2018 Grammys were widely criticized after only one woman (Alessia Cara) won a major award. The glaring issue was only heightened when Recording Academy president told Neil Portnow Variety that more women “need to step up,” seemingly as a solution to the gender gap within the awards ceremony.

This year’s list of Grammy hopefuls appears to indicate a step in the right direction, with many women among the nominees — something that Dua certainly considers an honor. “To wake up and be nominated in the best new artist category, where every artist except for two [Luke Combs and Greta Van Fleet] is a woman, that’s a good feeling,” she told Billboard. “I’m so proud of all the girls, because I do feel like we need to work a bit harder, and that’s not taking the merits away from any male artist — I know how demanding this job can be. I just feel really grateful to be nominated alongside so many talented women I admire, and some I even call my friends.”

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