Dua Lipa, Royal Albert Hall, London review • DIY Magazine

Sandwiched roughly halfway between her headline performance at this year’s Glastonbury and next summer’s shows at Wembley Stadium, the Royal Albert Hall’s spot in Dua Lipa’s holy trinity of iconic British stages may be somewhat of a diminutive one (its capacity is about equivalent to Brixton Academy or Hammersmith Apollo, for comparison), but tonight allows the pop superstar to firmly silence any remaining naysayers.

For, where the internet’s “go girl, give us nothing” meme was swapped for a viral dance moment at this year’s GRAMMYs, and her Glastonbury show took arena-filling pop moments to the hallowed outdoor setting of the Pyramid Stage, here the pomp of the room – and the addition of the Heritage Orchestra - allows a different side of Dua’s remarkable star quality to shine. For the most part, the focus is wholly on her vocal delivery and presence.

The entire floor is taken up by the stage: a shiny, strip-lit raised walkway snakes around to divide the orchestra pit in two while keeping it part of the show. Given the performance is being filmed for television broadcast, there are cameras at every turn; a drone on a zip wire travels across one side of the circular space, while others shuttle back and forth along curved dolly tracks. With Dua’s outfits echoing firstly a combination of Jessica Rabbit and Marilyn Monroe’s iconic pink dress, and then for the encore, both a Disney villain and princess, the scene set is less ‘an evening with…’, more ‘70s Vegas special. To compound this, at one point a 1950s-style microphone drops from the ceiling on a cord, seemingly entirely for a picture-perfect visual setup.

It's the evening’s special guest that will likely get most headlines – Elton John appears from among Dua's chorus of backing singers for a glorious 'Cold Heart', after neither appeared at the other's consecutive Glastonbury headline sets to perform it - but it’s where the unique staging highlights less obvious aspects of Dua’s skillset that feel most significant.

‘Anything For Love’, one of a handful of live debuts, culminates in a pin-drop moment as the song’s sole piano backing drops out for Dua’s voice to go solo; later, she honours “fellow London girl” Cleo Sol, covering the singer’s ‘Sunshine’. Both providing spine-tingling vocal moments in which not only Dua’s range – the latter making use of her lower register in particular – but her ability to convey emotion vocally are showcased spectacularly.

It's no surprise that ‘Love Again’ provides a standout string section moment, as does the Barbie soundtrack’s ‘Dance The Night’, with its pre-existing string arrangement. But ‘Pretty Please’ offers a less obvious highlight of musical translation, its bass line given extra impact via double bass and its synth lines provided by a pumping brass section - something that's perhaps less obviously magical than Hollywood strings, but far more interesting than the oft-used mechanism for pop songs of simply adding additional instrumentation, or drastically altering its arrangement to ‘fit’.

The evening is, most importantly, fun from start to finish, and will no doubt be a wholly enjoyable watch on screens of various sizes in the coming months. But, as another feather in Dua Lipa’s pop star cap, its focused nature allows her to show herself off a little more as an artist.