‘We’ve always tried not to skip steps with Dua Lipa’

Dua Lipa’s longtime WME agent David Bradley has lifted the lid on the star’s “mind-blowing” ascension from UK grassroots music venues to extensive world tours, ahead of her summer stadium run.

The latest step in Lipa’s carefully considered climb is her global Radical Optimism Tour, which encompasses 77 dates in arenas and stadiums across Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, North America and Latin America.

“Dua’s touring strategy has been global from day one, but she’s never skipped steps,” Bradley tells IQ. “She put in the work and toured extensively in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia, long before New Rules made her a superstar. That’s why she’s doing the level of business she’s doing now – because she built a platform in these places and is incrementally growing them.”

The Radical Optimism Tour follows 2022’s 71-date Future Nostalgia run – the singer’s first arena tour – which generated $89,302,575 at the box office.

“It’s part of the wider strategy to leave a little bit on the table for the next time”

“The next logical step following a tour like that is to go and do multiples in arenas and higher grosses,” explains Bradley. “Once you’ve knocked those down, you’ll feel confident going into stadiums everywhere.”

The lightning-quick sell-outs for Lipa’s two dates at Wembley Stadium in June bodes well for future stadium runs. The first show at the 90,000-cap London stadium went on sale the week after the 29-year-old’s headline set at Glastonbury and sold out in just five minutes.

“Glastonbury was the best tour advert we could have possibly had,” says Bradley. “There was so much demand, I think we could have gone on to do three or possibly four Wembley Stadiums. But it’s also just thinking of the future as well. This is not going to be Dua’s last tour, so it’s part of the wider strategy to leave a little bit on the table for the next time.

“She is still a relatively new artist so we’re on that upward swing. We’re not quite at the point now of just wanting to take every possible ticket out of the market.”

“The real court of public opinion for touring artists is ticket sales”

Even so, the Radical Optimism Tour has sold well over half a million tickets so far, according to the WME agent, with the Latin America leg yet to go on sale.

“The real court of public opinion for touring artists is ticket sales,” he continues. “People can say what they want about streaming figures or album sales and all the rest of it but if you want a true representation of how popular an artist is, put a tour on sale and see how it goes. In this scenario, she has defied all expectations and continues to grows exponentially every year.”

With ticket prices currently under the microscope and the secondary market very much active, Bradley says the tour’s sell-out success is partially down to “very intentional” pricing.

“The Radical Optimism Tour is premium pop, not premium price,” he says. “The very best seats in the house at Wembley will be priced at £150, which, as far as stadium scaling goes, is very conservative, but we’ll also have seats in the building at £35-45.

“There’s a balance of not wanting to gouge the fans, wanting to sell out and also making sure that the people who have delivered the show are being compensated fairly.

“If a ticket is trading for £1,000 on Viagogo, that’s what it’s worth”

“Anything short of a sellout is often considered not to be a success and becomes a negative talking point so you want to avoid that as best you can. By the same token, you don’t want to be leaving a lot of money on the table because the secondary market will just hoover that up.

“If a ticket is trading for £1,000 on Viagogo, that’s what it’s worth. And if the primary seller – ie the artist and the promoter – is selling it for £100, that money is not going to anyone that’s delivered and produced the show – it’s going to a tout, which is outrageous. So the only way we can do that is often by increasing ticket prices. And sometimes people get that calculation wrong.”

With the Asia, Australia and New Zealand legs of the Radical Optimism Tour wrapped up, Lipa is due to kick off her European outing on 11 May at Movistar Arena in Spain.

“The show just gets better and better as it goes along,” says Bradley. “We’ve got a well road-tested team of dancers and musicians, and Dua is on phenomenal form – and that just comes with practice and time on the road. Dua will do a debrief after every show with the key people in the team on the creative side and implement changes along the way so by the time we get to Wembley Stadium, for instance, I think this will be a very well-oiled machine.”

Dua Lipa is represented by WME’s David Bradley, David Levy and Brett Murrihy in Australia, Asia, Europe and New Zealand. CAA’s Rob Light, Marlene Tsuchii and Carole Kinzel represent her in North America and South America.

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