Dua Lipa Reveals the Best Advice Katy Perry Ever Gave Her: 'Don't Search Your Name'

When Dua Lipa first started in the biz, Katy Perry leveled with her, pop queen to pop queen, with some valuable advice

Being a celebrity certainly has its perks, but the constant scrutiny from the media — and Twitter trolls — is enough to discourage even the biggest of stars. When Dua Lipa first started coming up in the biz, Katy Perry leveled with her, pop queen to pop queen, with some valuable advice.

“When I met Katy Perry, she was like, ‘I hope you don’t search your name,'” the 23-year-old English songstress revealed in the cover story for ELLE‘s May issue. “She was like, ‘That’s what I did at the beginning of my career, and I’d get upset about every tabloid that said something about me.’ She said, ‘Do not have notifications on. Do not read that s—, because it will stop you from doing what you love.'”

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Carin Backoff
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Dua Lipa.
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Dua Lipa.

Over the course of the wide-ranging interview, Lipa also opened up about another piece of superstar advice she got from Coldplay’s frontman.

Chris Martin also said to me, ‘Be kind to yourself.’ I thought it was so weird that he would say that — what does that even mean?” Eventually, she realized that his words of wisdom went hand in hand with Perry’s.

“Reading [comments from internet trolls] is a form of self-abuse. It’s this vicious cycle where you don’t want to read it, but you go looking for it, then you get yourself upset,” the Grammy winner explained.

“I can’t let the opinions of others define what I feel about myself. That’s something I’m constantly telling my fans as well. Platform or no platform, musician or not, everyone’s getting bullied because everyone’s got this screen and they feel like no one can see them.”

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Dua Lipa.
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Dua Lipa. Carin Backoff

The “New Rules” singer again clarified why she applauded the way her fellow female nominees “stepped up” in her best new artist acceptance speech — a statement interpreted to be a dig at outgoing Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, who in 2018 responded to criticism that the show’s winners were overwhelmingly male by saying that women needed to “step up.”

“I didn’t plan it. It just came out of my mouth,” she said, two months after the viral moment. “But it felt right; it was obviously shade, but at the same time, he’s spoken about it and he knows what he did.”

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