Artists

DUA LIPA

25 • Pop prodigy

BY KYLIE MINOGUE

Dua Lipa is a shining star, blazing a dazzling trail through the pop cosmos. Just under four years ago, she released the first of her two albums. Today, she is dancing hand in hand with the zeitgeist, having carved with laser-like precision her place in the cultural landscape. I entered Dua’s orbit last November when I appeared as a guest on her Studio 2054 streamed concert. The production was spectacular and inclusive, somehow both future and retro, with her instantly recognizable voice stamped all over clever songwriting. While I know what it’s like to be in the eye of the storm, on this occasion, I was able to see the wider view from the periphery. Her famous work ethic radiated throughout the production. “You have to work hard to make a bit of luck,” her father told her when she was younger. It seems she listened. Her achievements are all the more remarkable given that she is 25 years of age. She’s kind, cool and smart. She’s a bona fide pop behemoth. And I, like millions of others, look forward to more, and even more, from La Lipa.

Minogue is a Grammy Award–winning musical artist

Amoako Boafo

36 • Creative resistance

Amoako Boafo is a rising art-world superstar. The 36-year-old Ghanian artist’s work, characterized by bright colors and textured finger painting, highlights Black identity and the African diaspora with complexity and warmth: in the 2020 painting for example, two men lean into each other as if posing for a photo, both clad in suits and standing before a rose-colored backdrop. This distinctive style has made him one of the world’s most in-demand artists, and won raves from Kehinde Wiley and Kim Jones, the artistic director of Dior Men, who launched a collaboration with him in 2020, making Boafo the first African artist to develop a line with the French fashion house. Perhaps just as significant is Boafo’s staunch unwillingness to being exploited by white collectors