But then there have been the local covers. Starting in March, during the Oceania leg of her tour, Lipa began adding a destination-specific song to each show. And in many cases, she’s also invited the local artist who wrote them to join her on stage.
In Melbourne, the cover was “Rush” with Troye Sivan performing beside her; in Chicago it was “Ain’t Nobody” by Chaka Khan, with Khan in the flesh; and in São Paulo, it was “Magalenha” with Carlinhos Brown. (My favorite was from Lima, where she played “Cariñito”—which was my wedding song when I got married in Peru.) Some were international hits, with a friendly reminder of the artists’ roots, while others served as a launchpad for fans well outside the city to encounter new songs via clips that circulated of each concert. Now that the tour has ended—with her final show in Mexico City on December 5—we’ll miss the guessing game that came to precede each performance, with audiophiles wondering which song would be chosen to pay homage to cities she visited. But hey, we’ll always have the song lists.
