Dua Lipa: Studio 2054 review – this disco extravaganza was the best livestream of the year

If revellers can’t go to the nightclub, then the nightclub shall come to the revellers. Dua Lipa’s spectacular Studio 2054 livestream offered an exceptionally well-staged simulation of a particularly fabulous night out at the disco. Albeit one in which you are stranded on the edge of the dancefloor, watching everyone else have all the fun. On the plus side, you could bring your own drinks and there was no queue for the toilets.

The 25-year-old British dance pop sensation has been one of the stars of this strange year, ever since she opted to press ahead and release disco themed album Future Nostalgia at the start of lockdown in March. It has become the bestselling new album of 2020 in the UK, spawning a succession of global hits and helping Dua Lipa pick up six American Grammy Award nominations this week. Her status as 2020’s hottest property could be ascertained by the VIP guest list at the most star-studded livestream event of the year.

FKA Twigs did a pole dance that could make your thighs ache just watching it, while Kylie Minogue popped up to writhe over the DJ’s turntables with the camp glee of a glamorous aunt who’s had a few too many at the wedding reception and is determined to show the youngsters how they did it in her day. Observing the strict social distancing protocols befitting his age, Sir Elton John beamed in on a giant screen to play a solo version of Rocket Man. But like a neglected pianist in the corner of a noisy cocktail lounge, the elder superstar was rather ignominiously faded out on his first chorus, while the cameras pivoted for the return of the woman of the hour, who had evidently nipped off and squeezed in a quick costume change during the interlude.

Filmed in a converted warehouse, the huge set was cleverly divided into differently themed adjacent spaces. There was a geometric neon and dry ice seventies style dancefloor, a roller disco with DJ Blessed Madonna at its centre, a suspended moon hanging above a spooky sci-fi style set and a bordello themed dressing room where Dua Lipa duetted with Latin stars Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Tainy on Un Día (One Day). The American based artists appeared via black and white TV in one of many imaginative interactions to get around pandemic protocols.

Dua Lipa has described her pay-per-view online concert as being “as close to a performance as we can get right now.” Whether it was genuinely live or not, well, who knows? One room contained band members offering up drum breaks and guitar solos whenever a camera pointed in their direction, which wasn't often. The star’s husky, powerful vocals were surely partly live, though the energetic choreography looked a bit strenuous for such smooth vocalising.

However you dress them up, livestreams are poor substitutes for gigs. But there comes a point when we have to judge the medium on its own merits as televisual performances. Billie Eilish really raised the game with her virtual reality livestream last month but Dua Lipa’s extravaganza was the best I have seen. The seamless movement combined dynamically with the sleek pulse of her shiny pop grooves, while the joyful choreography around Dua Lipa’s glamorous swagger lent the whole occasion the aura of a classic Hollywood musical. A tracking shot into an abandoned warehouse space for breakout 2017 anthem New Rules would have impressed Martin Scorcese.

As the cameras craned away at the end, revealing the whole set, I felt giddy and transported, as if I had been briefly caught up in an escapist fantasy. And that, after all, is what you would hope to feel at a great concert, even if I was left with a touch of envy for the dancers, musicians and crew applauding one another whilst I sat on my sofa with a laptop on my knee. At least I didn’t have far to go to get home.

Dua Lipa: Studio 2054 is available to watch on catch up until 9.45pm tonight