In each edition of web_crawlr we have exclusive original content every day. On Saturday our Video Producer Kyle Calise explores the origins and history of the most iconic memes online in his “Meme History” column. If you want to read columns like this a day before everyone else, subscribe to web_crawlr to get your daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
When most pop stars have an accidental moment of meme fame, it’s something that they try to distance themselves from. But what if they simply embraced the jokes? It’s a strategy that’s worked for no one better, time and time again, than Dula Peep.
Dua Lipa Smiling Awkwardly
At Glastonbury 2024 (which she headlined), Dua Lipa was approached by a ukulele-clad street musician named Liam C.
In an Instagram post he shared later that weekend, he very confidently approached her asking if he could play her just 30 seconds of his song, to get her reaction which she politely obliged, but seemingly because she sort of had to.
It was clear she was kind of trying to get away, because Lipa’s reaction was a familiar one that almost everyone has had when cornered at a party by someone being mildly annoying—that of polite endurance.
Its relatability is why it’s perfect for use as a meme.
The same day that the video went live on Liam’s Instagram, an X user posted a shorter version of it, captioning it “interview panel waiting for you to stop so they can give it to the internal candidate.” It got 24,000 likes in one day, and the new meme was officially born.
As a quick aside, Liam had actually snuck into the festival to get exposure. But he appeared to be so energetic and charismatic that when security grabbed him to leave, he went without a fuss, except for the fact that he kept filming the entire time, and security seemed to think it was actually pretty amusing.
Dua Lipa Holding a Book
Liam C obviously wanted to leverage whatever celebrity he could manage to bump into in order to boost his own fame, but the year prior, Dua Lipa had starred in a different meme altogether, related to another musician who actually has a following: Michelle Zauner.
Better known as the frontwoman for the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast, Zauner’s memoir “Crying in H Mart,” was Lipa’s April 2023 pick for the book club on her editorial platform Service95.
In helping to promote both the book and her book club, Lipa posed holding a copy, in a photo posted to her Instagram on March 18th of that year.
On the 20th, 2 days later—X user @LaDrova78 posted an edit which featured Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital.”
And from there it was out in the world as a full blown meme—the weirder the book the better.
Dua Lipa Twisting Her Hips
Speaking of weird, next we have Dua Lipa Twisting Her Hips.
Headlining yet another festival a few years earlier, this time Lollapalooza Berlin 2018, Lipa was seen dancing like this during the performance of her song “One Kiss.” It was subsequently posted to YouTube where it got over a quarter-million views, mostly because people thought it was goofy and rushed and maybe not super thought-out.
It’s now a meme all unto itself where people lightheartedly make fun of it, and it’s almost become her signature move.
In an appearance on Jimmy Fallon in 2022, she mentioned that she’s trying to reclaim it, and that she now does it on purpose on tour at the beginning of her hit “Don’t Start Now.”
And this wasn’t the only time her questionable dancing was memed.
Go Girl Give Us Nothing
“Go Girl Give Us Nothing,” is a phrase that one viewer made up in a since-deleted YouTube comment on Dua Lipa’s 2018 BRIT Awards “New Rules” performance video.
It’s since become a phrase that’s often applied to any performer who’s taking it easy—notable examples include Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, and T-ARA.
When Dua Lipa hosted Saturday Night Live in May of 2024, she stated in her monologue, “I didn’t give you nothing, I gave you the greatest meme of all time.”
Levitating
And finally, we’ll leave you with a meme which is perhaps the polar opposite: Rather than Dua Lipa herself giving little effort, following the 2020 release of her track “Levitating,” a new TikTok trend sprung to life where fans go through the effort to meticulously and very literally re-enact every lyric of rapper DaBaby’s guest appearance.
Sometimes set in grocery stores, sometimes just with pets—there are hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos now featuring this part of the song.
Some artists are quick flashes in the pan, and honestly so are a lot of memes.
But Dua Lipa’s songs are over and over again insanely catchy and hooky and make people want to get up and dance and have fun. So do all her weird moments that we can’t stop trying to relive online.
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