Dua Lipa’s latest single has arrived. On Thursday, the 28-year-old singer dropped her latest song, “Training Season,” a dance track based off a series of bad dates.
“I had been on a string of bad dates, and the last one was the final straw,” Lipa said of the song in a press release. “The next morning, I arrived to the studio to [writers] Caroline [Ailin] and Tobias [Jesso Jr.] asking me how it all went and I immediately declared ‘training season is over,’ and, like the best ‘day after’ debriefs with your mates, we had a lot of laughs and it all quickly came together from there.”
While Lipa noted that the song is “obviously about that feeling when you are just absolutely done telling people…men specifically in this case, how to date you right,” she said that “it is also about my training season being over and me growing with every experience.”
“I have never felt more confident, clear or empowered,” she said. “And while it may be that training season is never over for any of us, you start to see the beauty in finding that person to experience it with. You stop looking for the trainees and become more interested in having someone where you are and someone to grow with.”
Lipa also released a music video for the track on Friday. Directed by Vincent Haycock, the “Training Season” video opens with Lipa’s voicemail being flooded with apologetic messages and second chance requests. As the song continues, Lipa sits alone while she’s surrounded by men vying for her attention as the room begins to spin into chaos.
When 360Aproko spoke to Lipa at the 2024 GRAMMYs — where she performed”Training Season” along with “Dance the Night Away” and “Houdini” — she explained that her new single is about “not expecting for people to love you right.”
“You’re just like, training season’s over. You’re done teaching people how to do things right,” she said. “[Come correct or] don’t come at all. That’s the vibe.”
As for her forthcoming album, which is due out later this year, Lipa told 360Aproko, “I feel like with every album, I get to grow more and learn more about myself and I become more free as a songwriter and as a performer and as an artist. So, this one, I’m just like digging deeper and deeper. I love it. I’m proud of this one.”