Dua Lipa reunited with singer and actor Troye Sivan, who she credited for launching her career, to talk about the nuances of self-identity.
Listen Now: Troye Sivan: The Power of Identity - Dua Lipa: At Your Service
Having toured together as opener and main act of Sivan’s 2016 Suburbia Tour, Dua Lipa and Troye Sivan have been close friends for years. And it was this friendship that became the perfect season finale of Dua’s podcast, where the two explored what it means to have an identity, and how it may shift with enough time. “It's funny because I think it always comes back to really core principles, you know, that don't change that often,” Sivan theorized. “Like, you know, this is your identity, this is who you are.” His biggest identifiers and "core principles" that he instantaneously pointed out were being Australian, Jewish, queer and a creative or artist. “I think those are the things that if you had to really, really strip me to like my bare bones, those are the things that I would first use to describe myself.”
Though he says he “grew out” of the more religious aspects, Sivan still considers being Jewish as a big part of his identity. Joking about how that might be confusing, he said, “It's hard to describe, I think, to people who maybe aren't Jewish because, okay, so it is a religion, right? Obviously. But there's just such a deep cultural side to it too.” Sivan described growing up in a very Jewish community, with schools, holidays, and having that commonality with all those around him. His family itself was more observant of the Jewish religion, though their history within the scope of the Holocaust and purposely maintaining their culture left him with what he called, “a sense of pride and duty.”
“I feel Jewish in the same way that I feel like an Australian or something,” he told Dua Lipa. “I don't know. It's like the food, it's the family, it's everything. That's who I am.”
Being a member of the queer community is also a big part of Sivan’s identity, for which he has been a long-term advocate. Yet, he told Dua Lipa that his queerness goes back even farther than when he first came out. “I was conscious of the fact that I was not straight since literally as long as I can remember, it's one of my earliest memories. I don't know why I was super self-aware about it,” he recalled genuinely. “And I knew that it was something that I did not want to be. And I thought that it was something that I was going to take to the grave with me. Like I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever tell anyone.”
At 18 years old, Sivan grew afraid of being outed, due to a recent record deal and his exposure growing. Having been confident in his sexuality for a while, Sivan decided to record a coming out YouTube video, as his career was anchored in producing YouTube content at the time. “I just kind of saw it as like an opportunity to give back to the community that helped me, which was like the online queer YouTube community,” he said, “and to basically, get this thing off my chest and make sure that I do it in a way that feels comfortable for me. And also kind of set myself up with my label that I get to be truthful from day one in my music, which was like, I didn't know what else I was possibly going to do.” From there on out, he says he’s been dedicated to being honest with both himself, his music, and his listeners as he grows further into his sense of self.
And Sivan has continued that honesty in his latest album, Something to Give Each Other, which is set to be released on October 13. “I hope that the album, when people hear it, feels like those couple of years of just like finding resilience in yourself that you didn't know that you had, finding community in ways that you didn't know you could, relying on your friends, loving music, meeting new people, like exploring, just all of these awesome things.”
His single to the album, “Rush” is out now- and seems to be gaining serious traction fast. To listen to this self-love themed podcast episode, check out Dua Lipa: At Your Service on the free Audacy app.