Dua Lipa Got Real About How Those "Give Us Nothing" Memes Make Her Feel

As with any 21st century, international pop star, Dua Lipa’s online presence is obsession-worthy. She’s *thee* driving force of inspiration behind some of the internet’s finest memes: that one subtly hypnotizing hip twist GIF; a pandemic PSA ripped from the chorus of the British artist’s “Don’t Start Now.” But the singer’s stage presence, which has been the subject of criticism for years, is a different story — one that she’s finally addressed firsthand in a recent interview. Prepared to be shook AF by Dua Lipa’s response to people shading her performances.

Lipa makes dance bops, but not everyone’s always been on board with how the entertainer *literally* bops. After releasing her self-titled debut album and skyrocketing to global success in 2017, the Future Nostalgia singer’s numerous, early-career performances captured a lot of new fans’ attention, and they had ~thoughts~ about the way she carried herself on stage, which some find awkward. Naturally, these opinions were shared online, and YouTube, in particular, is where one fan’s two cents turned into one of pop music’s biggest memes.

In the chaotic comments section of a video of Lipa performing “New Rules” at the 2018 BRIT Awards, they wrote: “I love her lack of energy, go girl give us nothing!”

The comment has since been deleted, but it lives in internet history forever. Now, people use “go girl give us nothing” to describe just about any scenario in which someone, literally anyone, is doing the absolute least in a setting where they should be doing the most. However, Lipa, in particular, took her fan’s criticism v seriously — these days, she looks far more relaxed and confident on stage, which I love for her — and in a June 29 interview with Vanity Fair, the 25-year-old entertainer explained what was up with her moves in the first place.

“It’s one thing when people are mean about you, but you know that you did your best,” she said about the meme-ification of her dance skills. “But it’s another thing when people are mean about you and you know that you actually haven’t had the opportunity to be the best because you’ve spread yourself so thinly in trying to do everything at once.”

The interview noted that Lipa, herself, mentioned the “go girl give us nothing” meme, so it’s clear she took it to heart. But she said criticism inspired her to work even harder during her Future Nostalgia era.

“You want to show that you’re here to stay and you want to show that it’s not just about one album or one big song or whatever it is,” Lipa said. “I just wanted to make sure that this time around, I was very much in control of the fact that I’m going to do the music, then I’m going to rehearse. And then when I come in and I do the performances, they’re all going to be amazing. I’m going to prove to people that I can do this and that I’m here to stay.”

Now that’s what I call growth. Go girl, give us everything!