It took the whole week to get this out; I’ve had a very rough week, which I’ll write about more in the next writing.
Anyway…
For Valentine’s Day this year, I decided to treat myself more than I have in the past. Usually, I buy myself a bag of Boom Chicka Pop and watch at least three romantic comedies by myself on February 14th.
This go around, I treated myself to seeing Dua Lipa live, and I went by myself. I couldn’t think of a single person in my life who would enjoy seeing Dua Lipa with me, and since tickets tend to go quick, I decided to just go ahead and buy one ticket for myself.
Knowing the week after Valentine’s Day is always incredibly tough for me (again, we’ll talk about that next), I thought a date with myself seemed appropriate for February 14th. It wasn’t the first date with myself, but seeing as it was my first time experiencing a concert by myself, I wanted to document this particular date with Jamilah.
Let’s start with the look:
I’m proud to say the actual outfit is secondhand. The gray sweatshirt is from the men’s department at Goodwill, and I cut it to make it an extreme crop top, which I love. If I barely raise my hand, you can see the black lace bralette I wear underneath that is from a small business called BootayBag (I used to have a subscription, but that stuff adds up quick). I’m not sure what brand the skirt is, but I got it from Plato’s Closet; I am completely obsessed and want to wear it literally everywhere. The only thing that’s not secondhand are my sneakers, which are Converse originally bought from Rack Room Shoes.
If there’s something I don’t like about the look, it would have to be my hair. Since this set of faux locs did not turn out nearly the way I expected, I had to figure out a way to put them up without showing that they were literally falling apart (embarrassingly so).
Makeup was done by my teenage cousin. As much as I love getting dressed up, I have no talent when it comes to doing makeup, so I enlisted the skills of my younger cousin to do it. We decided to do a bolder eyeshadow color to bring out the red in the skirt. She used black eyeshadow to do my eyeliner, which was easier for her to put on and for me to take off. Plus, it matched the boldness of the look. To finish it off, she took a glittery silver liquid eyeshadow and went around the perimeter of my eye.
Since we got done with my makeup later than intended, there wasn’t much time for me to get a real dinner. I wanted Slim & Husky’s, but since I ate a decently big Panera lunch, I was able to get away with drinking a confetti & vanilla ice cream milkshake from No Baked Cookie Dough. Plus, I was able to get really good parking across the street from the venue, so skipping a legit dinner worked out.
Upon walking into the venue, I saw the merch for the tour; I wasn’t too impressed or head over heels, so I opted out of buying any merch and went straight to my seat.
I didn’t realize my seat was at the very top of the arena and would provide a half decent view of the screens.
However, I quickly grew okay with the location of my seat since I’m not a super fan. I simply know every word to the easy pop album that is Future Nostalgia and wanted to experience the good time live.
I was nervous I would sit next to a lovey dovey couple who threw PDA and romantic happiness in my face. On my left, one seat away, there was a couple, but they didn’t really do anything the entire show. On my right, I met two incredible women named Grace & Audrey from Indiana. They were so incredibly kind and fun and authentic and eased any worries I had.
Speaking of couples, I will say I didn’t appreciate the couple a few rows in front of me who vaped the entire time. The blinding lights from Dua’s first opening act were already headache inducing; I definitely did not need the secondhand high on top of that.
As for the actual show, you can click this link for the set list she performed in Nashville, which is also the same one she performed in Miami: the link. I really appreciate that she introduced her dancers in the opening video; something about it touched my heart. Towards the end of the show, someone threw a white teddy bear onstage, and she took it! Then someone threw a pink cowboy hat onstage, and she put it on and continued the show before kissing it and throwing it back.
I spent the entire time singing and dancing and smiling like a big goof; the thought of waking up at 4 am to get to work did not pass my mind once. Of course, I did end up losing my voice and getting talked about at work, but it was totally worth it.
With this experience, I thought I would be scared to do it by myself, but I felt so incredibly carefree and didn’t give a crap about who judged me or saw me dancing. I walked around in my extremely cropped sweatshirt with my bold eyeshadow and bedazzled mask and felt incredibly comfortable. Maybe the mask helped?
Maybe I’m comfortable in my own skin [and maybe that’s only when I’m by myself]?
“I’m just here to hear her accent.”
Grace from Indiana
Videos from the concert can be found on my Instagram.
