Review: Dua Lipa’s New ‘Service95’ Newsletter and ‘At Your Service’ Podcast

There’s never been a better time to be Dua Lipa. Since the release of her highly acclaimed second album “Future Nostalgia” in March 2020, her career has only grown. She’s spent much of the past two years promoting the album, which won her a third Grammy Award and saw its fifth single, “Levitating,” be named the top song of 2021 on the Billboard Hot 100. And after several delays due to the pandemic, Lipa is finally embarking on the worldwide Future Nostalgia Tour.

In the midst of what must already be an extremely busy string of months, Lipa has also managed to launch a new weekly newsletter, “Service95,” and her podcast “Dua Lipa: At Your Service.”

In both Instagram posts and interviews, Lipa has pointed to her love of lists as a key motivation for creating the newsletter. In the newsletter, these short “listicles” are written both by her and invited authors. So far, she has outlined her favorite London restaurants, tricks for overcoming insomnia, and book recommendations, while her guests have dished about everything from their favorite things to do on a day off in Paris to their favorite lingerie brands at the moment. Often including no explanation, the lists simply give a seductive glimpse into what makes a wealthy pop star and her close friends tick.

Placed between these lighthearted listicles are essays by a number of authors highlighting pressing social and political issues. These include a call on Russian legislators to better protect women and girls from domestic violence, an essay arguing for changes to the modern approach to feminism, and a discussion of the importance of making the world accessible to all people. Each piece is interesting, well-written, and well-argued — successfully balancing calls to action with opportunities to learn from qualified authors.

This balance of content is on brand for Lipa, who often encourages her nearly 80 million Instagram followers to take inspired action, as she frequently speaks out about issues relating to her identity as both a woman and the daughter of two Kosovan immigrants. Her ability to casually interweave this activism between glamorous shots of her donning yet another fantastic outfit beside the pool or performing at an awards show merits praise. In doing so, she makes space for all parts of herself to come through, on her own terms and her own platform.

But the issue with “Service95” is not the individual pieces themselves. Each standalone list or article is at the very least fine, if not great. However, the combination of silly lists and serious articles in a weekly email is jarring. While some lists clearly intend to indulge the privileged by highlighting businesses and activities that come with a high price of admission, the works of journalists making legitimate and often time-sensitive calls to action stand in opposition to these.

One can — as Lipa clearly does — value both. But randomly including a little bit of each in her newsletter, though certainly true to her brand, is at best a noble attempt to expose her wealthiest subscribers to global issues, and at worst utterly tone deaf. It is difficult to imagine anyone who takes these activist pieces to heart being able to immediately switch gears as they read a lighthearted listing of the top online jewelry brands of 2022 without feeling like something is amiss.

A similar issue plagues her “At Your Service” podcast. Her first two guests, Olivier Rousteing, the creative director of French fashion house Balmain, and bestselling American author Lisa Taddeo, are given ample space to tell their stories and thoughtfully answer Lipa’s questions. But even still, hearing Rousteing speak about his experiences of racism in the fashion industry or Taddeo discuss the true stories of the women who inspired her novel has a realness to it that, when transitioned at Lipa’s prompting into lists of their favorite West Village restaurants and similar topics, becomes unsettling.

Ideally, Lipa will continue to develop these platforms creatively and give the same, if not more, space to others to share their own thoughts and experiences. But while this random assortment of insights and tidbits may work well in a shorter form, like Instagram, this new era of content creation that Lipa is hoping to enter will demand an additional layer of planning. With more preparation, Lipa will hopefully alter her projects in ways that feel more sincere and intentional.