As though the release of Club Future Nostalgia wasn’t enough, Dua Lipa has decided to riff off the same concept she wielded for her already recent video version of a–no the–“Levitating” remix featuring Madonna and Missy Elliott. Unable to keep her head out of the clouds, she has brought us yet another galaxy-drenched iteration of the visual to accompany a new version of the song, this time featuring DaBaby. Again taking place in the still of the night, and favoring the nostalgic use of star-gazing as though we’re in the 1950s and people lay on the grass or the hood of their car staring up into the sky, this is where we find Lipa, sporting a “Sugaboo” gold necklace (think the “Carrie” necklace that Bradshaw was so verklempt about losing when she was in Paris).
She sits on the hood of her car, in fact, before a portal to another dimension opens in the sky (again, it’s sort of 50s–what with the UFO vibe of it). She ascends the steps that materialize, transported all at once into an art deco elevator that looks like it ripped off the promo artwork from both Studio 54 and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Suddenly wearing a shimmering blue halter dress and accompanied by two backup dancers dressed in elevator operator attire of yore (which sort of makes them look like bellhops), Lipa does a jig as though it’s the most natural thing in the world for her to be in this apparently TikTok-owned elevator–because the logo of said app serves as the “arrow” indicating what floor of the “building” people are on. Plugged in honor of the #DuaVideo challenge the pop star held in August on TikTok, this video is un certain homage to that.
The elevator then reads: “Approaching KRK-91,” a reference to DaBaby’s real name being Kirk (as displayed by the necklace he sports) and his birth year of 1991. He then appears when the elevator opens into the stratosphere, rapping, “I’m one of the greatest, ain’t no debatin’ on it/I’m still levitating, I’m heavily medicated/Ironic I gave ’em love and they end up hatin’ on me…/Been fightin’ hard for your love and I’m runnin’ thin on my patience.” As Lipa dances casually behind him, they join in together for a dance upon hitting the “Roller World” floor, whereupon a number of 70s-inspired (clearly, Lipa is as nostalgic for the twentieth century vibe as we all are) roller girls enter the space, which is somehow magically large enough to accommodate them and their over the top moves.
The elevator finally flashes “Final Stop,” which seems to be the moon (also a major player in The Blessed Madonna remix video). They soon launch a fellow passenger out into the “Milky Way” before Lipa does an aesthetic alteration to showcase bangs (which she should really opt for as a hairstyle more often) and a sheer black dress with coordinating elbow-length gloves. Her dancers appear on a Milky Way-like illuminated circular belt as she hovers above them while they all join in for choreography inevitably suited to the TikTok sense of virality.
Directed by Warren Fu (best known for his work on videos for The Strokes, Daft Punk and The 1975), the interplanetary shift is subtly indicative of our continued collective obsession with hoping and praying there’s another place to defect to when this one is pushed to its absolute brink. By that time, of course, people like Dua Lipa will have definitely learned how to “levitate” by way of one of Elon Musk’s super exclusive spaceships. But riches clearly don’t seem to matter if you don’t have TikTok as a way to pass the hours. If only Virginia Woolf had known.
