Following a viral video of Dua Lipa dancing on stage way back in 2017, the British singer has not been able to successfully shake off the memes, jokes and comments anymore.
Addressing the total backlash on social media following the live dance routine, the 26-year-old has dubbed the ordeal 'kind of unfair'.
The viral video shows the 'New Rules' singer twisting her hips as she stands up straight with a neutral facial expression, and it has seemingly been a point of critique and judgement for the young singer's career ever since.
Lipa referred to the internet's meme culture, outlining the 'toxic currency' of social media and taking a stand against it.
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The One Kiss singer recently spoke to NPR about her experience living in the public eye – going into specific details about the meme-ified choreography that took place more than five years ago.
“Social media just kind of took over," the Grammy-award winning artist began.
“There was this one little dance routine that I did when I was performing, and people took that one little snippet and decided to base my whole stage presence and who I was as a performer on stage [on that].”
Dua Lipa also disclosed: “I think at that point, there [were] moments of self-doubt, even though it was kind of unfair because a lot of the people that had sent in those messages or were saying things online actually hadn’t been to a show."
Calling out the viral meme as an example of the 'toxic currency' that underpins social media, the singer concluded her statements with: “Social media is kind of run on this toxic currency of ‘who can make people laugh at the expense of others'."
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When discussing her emotional journey with the meme, she elaborated further: "Of course, it got to me.
“I was at a point where I was so happy, I was doing everything that I wanted to, but then there were people who made me feel like maybe I wasn’t good enough or I didn’t deserve to be there, I wasn’t cut out to be a musician."
While a lot of the comments surrounding the viral dancing meme were on the more light-hearted and comedic side, with comments like, "We love her lack of energy. Go girl, give us nothing," and "So casual, so weird, so beautiful. Mind blowing," others took the joke too far.
One even dubbed the dance routine 'weirdly demonic', while another commented, "What does she even think she’s doing?"
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In a full 180, while it is clear that the meme initially 'got to (her)', Lipa has since stated that she isn't that fussed at all about what the public think about her now.
“I realised that what anyone says doesn’t actually matter.
“It was something that I learned during the period of writing Future Nostalgia – I was able to shut people out. Now, if anybody says anything, it doesn’t even bother me.”
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Froggy/YouTube