Dua Lipa is in album-release mode with less than a month to go until the arrival of her third studio LP Radical Optimism on May 3. She first gave a taste of what’s to come late last year with lead single “Houdini” and followed it up with “Training Season” earlier this year. Now, the album’s latest single “Illusion” is available for fans to hear.
Like “Houdini” and “Training Season,” Lipa teamed up with with Caroline Ailin, Danny L Harle, Tobias Jesso Jr., and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker to help write the song, with Harle and Jesso co-producing the track. In a statement upon the single’s release, Lipa revealed that it was the first track that the group all collaborated on for the project.
“‘Illusion’ was the first song Caroline, Danny, Tobias, Kevin, and I worked on together, and it really broke the ice for the record,” Lipa said, per Billboard. “It’s about knowing what you’re getting yourself into, but staying for the hell of it. The joke’s on them, it’s the fun of playing someone at their own game because ultimately you won’t fall for an illusion.”
The music video matches the song’s summer-ready feel as Lipa frolics in Barcelona’s Piscina Municipal de Montjuïc flanked by dancers, high divers, and synchronized swimmers. Coincidentally, it’s the same swimming pool where Kylie Minogue — who has collaborated with Lipa and performed at her Studio 2054 livestream concert — shot the video for her 2003 song “Slow.”
When speaking with Rolling Stone earlier this year about her upcoming era, she acknowledged that she’s doing something completely different from her 2020 disco-pop breakout Future Nostalgia.
“This record feels a bit more raw,” she said. “I want to capture the essence of youth and freedom and having fun and just letting things happen, whether it’s good or bad. You can’t change it. You just have to roll with the punches of whatever’s happening in your life.”