Dua Lipa
If you knew little about British pop singer Dua Lipa and searched her images on Google, you may think at first that she’s some kind of model for dental hygiene, given how often she likes to be photographed sticking her tongue out. The 22-year-old singer-songwriter basically started out in her teens as a model, though she was already posting her homemade covers of songs by others on YouTube at the time, a hobby that exploded into a career when millions of page-views turned into a contract with Warner Brothers Records.
Now officially credited as the youngest female solo artist to hit one billion Youtube views (for her single “New Rules”), she’s been blowing up in Britain for a while now, but her recent appearance on the Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Natalie Portman has afforded her the kind of instant U.S. career boost likely to spur brisk ticket sales for her June 29 appearance at SDSU’s Open Air Theatre. She’s also currently heard on the Fifty Shades Freed film soundtrack with “High” (a collaboration with EDM producer Whethan), though there’s certainly no reason to hold that against such a promising young talent.