Celebrity
Dua Lipa Finally Responds To That Viral Dancing Meme
The singer is tired of people thinking, “Go girl, give us nothing.”
Dua Lipa is tired of people thinking that she’s giving us nothing. In her Rolling Stone cover story published on Jan. 16, the singer responded to the viral dancing meme stemming from her 2018 performances, which spawned the oft-quoted phrase, “Go girl, give us nothing.”
The writer pointed out that Lipa mentioned the meme twice during the interview, one of which was completely unprompted, signifying that it weighed on her over five years later.
“I did find that really hurtful, and I found it really painful because I was like, ‘I’m finally getting to do something that I love to do, and I’m being shut down, that I just can’t seem to do anything right,’” she said.
The Story Behind The Meme
The original meme started after Lipa posted her 2018 BRIT Awards performance of “New Rules” on YouTube. In the comments section, a viewer named Tobias wrote, “I love her lack of energy, go girl give us nothing!”
That last sentence took on a life of its own, with X (formerly Twitter) fans using it to describe some more low-energy moments from both Lipa and other pop stars. However, the meme continued to follow Lipa in particular after more performance clips of her looking bored while doing a hip swivel move went viral and were mocked online.
Lipa noted how she had so many obligations at that time that she couldn’t always make sure her moves were on point. “I was also being thrown around the world,” she remarked. “Lots of promos, lots of rehearsing, lots of everything, and not having really time to perfect anything.”
However, she went into her Future Nostalgia era in late 2019 with a more intense focus on pulling off sharp choreography, leading to many memorable performances that were applauded by the same fans. Now, the top comment on that YouTube video is, “She went from go girl give us nothing to giving us one of the best performances on the Grammys, that’s artistic growth.”
“Queen of Vacations”
Her dancing isn’t the only meme that Lipa has had to deal with. She also has a reputation for spending her life on vacation, with Vulture pointing out that she took one holiday per month for nine months in 2023, as per her Instagram posts. While this attitude is truly aspirational, it’s also become a meme in itself, with fans calling her “queen of vacation,” or “vacanza queen” in Italian.
In her RS interview, she defended her world travels, pointing out how she missed quality time with family and friends during her long 2022 world tour. “Of course, I was going to f*cking holiday and chill,” she said. “As long as I’m doing my job, hitting my deadlines, and getting my sh*t done, then I will find a way to relax, too. It’s really work hard and play hard. Why not?”
The constant virality has taught Lipa not to take social media too seriously. “It’s always so easy with social media to get caught up in a negative spiral or people being mean, telling you what they think about you without really knowing you at all,” she said. “For me, I think it’s just important to be able to take things with a pinch of salt.”
