"Levitating" by Dua Lipa // Song Review + UK Exclusive 12" Vinyl Remix Single featuring Madonna, Missy Elliott, and The Blessed Madonna

With its glittering disco beats, vibrant synths, and infectious groove, "Levitating" by Dua Lipa instantly transports the listener to a cosmic dancefloor. It's one of my favorite songs of all time and encapsulates all that I love about Dua as an artist. Future Nostalgia is also simply one of the best albums ever made too, it is hit after hit for every single song and has such a timeless quality to it. "Levitating" embodies all the Future Nostalgia is, which largely consists of both retro and modern influences, blended together to create a sound that is all her own.

"If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy and I can take you for a ride, I had a premonition that we fell into a rhythm where the music don't stop for life," Dua sings in the opening lines of the song. "Glitter in the sky, glitter in my eyes, shining just the way I like, if you're feeling like you need a little bit of company, you met me at the perfect time".

I love the celestial aesthetics Dua drew from with the lyrics of "Levitating", the shimmering production matches that energy and truly brings the song to life. "It's about having fun and meeting someone and falling in love and thinking, 'You've probably met me at the perfect time, let's just go for it.' It's the feeling when love makes you feel like you're levitating. It’s otherworldly," Dua said in an interview with Apple Music.

It has this hypnotic and transcending quality to it that just makes me want to listen to it on repeat forever without ever getting tired of it. The production on "Levitating" is just so immaculate, as so much of this album is. That paired with Dua's incredible vocals elevates it to another level. She worked with many of her frequent collaborators on the song, like Sarah Hudson, Clarence Coffee Jr, KOZ, and Stuart Price.

It's bold, anthemic, and unabashedly vivid in its world building, creating an immersive experience that transports the listener straight to a glittering cosmic disco. "It's all about like the ambience, and creating like a whole world around the song that's beyond just the lyrics and the vocal, it's about like the whole story behind it," Dua said in an episode of the Song Exploder podcast.

In the chorus she sings, "I got you, moonlight, you're my starlight I need you all night, come on, dance with me, I'm levitating". That lyric really encapsulates the entire retro futuristic theme so perfectly, especially in the context of the intergalactic themed album cover and accompanying photoshoot.

"This is the first song I wrote where I really felt I had everyone on board with the concept of the album. When I was writing it, I felt like I was in Austin Powers and was like, 'If I do a video for this, Mike Myers has to be in it.' It had to be fun and bubbly but with lyrics that felt really smart," Dua said in a 2020 interview with Apple Music. "This is about me exploring happy songs and doing something that's not 'dance crying.' "Levitating" was one of the first songs to be written following that breakthrough and truly set the tone for the rest of what was to come during the album's creation.

She said the song was inspired by Daft Punk, with a playfulness in the performance that keeps it all very fun and lighthearted too. The cute rap on the song's bridge is one of the stand-out moments of the track, "My love is like a rocket, watch it blast off, and I'm feeling so electric, dance my ass off," she sings. In an interview with Apple Music, she said it's "...almost like my British version of Blondie's rapping. I felt like I needed to get my British side across as well on this record, because sometimes people don't actually know where I'm from."

"Levitating" was ranked as Billboard's No. 1 song of the year on their annual year-end Hot 100 Songs chart in 2021, which is very special since it was released in 2020 and also peaked at No. 2 on the charts. The longevity this song has had is truly like no other. It has broken countless records, including spending a total of 66 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts as of February 2022, and broke the record for the longest charting song by a lead female artist on the Hot 100 in the 21st century. With this song and the rest of the album, Dua and her collaborators ushered in a new decade of pop music in such an impactful way.

The release of "Levitating" and the rest of Future Nostalgia was a defining moment in pop music, one that celebrates all of the great artists that have come before her but also paved the way for a new generation of artists to come after her as well. It is both timeless and innovative, which are two qualities of this album that went on to define what the next decade of music was going to encapsulate from that point forward.

Since "Levitating" was released in 2020, there have been several remixes and alternate versions that Dua worked on with a variety of collaborators. While none of them come close to capturing the magic of the original, each offers a unique vibe and perspective. The first was released as the lead single for Dua Lipa and DJ/producer The Blessed Madonna's collaborative remix album called Club Future Nostalgia. Released in August 2020, about six months after the initial release of the original album, The Blessed Madonna reworked all of the songs, for better or worse - but honestly mainly just for worse. While I wasn’t a fan of the Club Future Nostalgia album, mainly because the original Future Nostalgia is just too perfect, and none of the remixes enhanced the originals in any way, the "Levitating" remix stands out as the best track from that release.

This version features a new verse from Missy Elliott, which really boosts the hip-hop edge of the remix and brings a new energy to the track. Madonna is also featured, but less prominently and more so as just backing vocals alongside Dua. That collaboration between Dua and Madonna has been a long time coming and felt especially fitting for this era because Future Nostalgia was very much inspired by albums like Ray of Light and Confessions on a Dance Floor during its creation.

I have this song on a special edition 12" vinyl, which is such a unique pressing in my Dua Lipa record collection. This vinyl was released in late 2020 and sold exclusively in the UK on The Blessed Madonna's website. There isn't an official amount that this pressing was limited to, but I would assume there are only a couple thousand copies of it worldwide. It's not necessarily a super rare or expensive record, but it is relatively uncommon to find, at least in the US. I surprisingly actually found this at my favorite local record store in Pennsylvania around the time it was released in late 2020 or early 2021. That store, which is no longer open now, always had a lot of cool imported records like that from UK artists, which I always loved finding and adding to my collection.

It's only a one-sided pressing, with side B being completely blank with no grooves on the vinyl or design on the white center label. I do wish this release had at the very least the original version of "Levitating" as the B side, but since it is technically sold by The Blessed Madonna and not Dua Lipa herself, then maybe that's why.

The packaging is very simple, it's almost like a test pressing with how minimal design effort that went into it. The sleeve it comes in is blank white with no markings whatsoever, aside from a barcode sticker on the back. The vinyl itself is pressed on black vinyl, with a white center label that says the name of the song and all of the artists featured. This vinyl release seems to be tailored for DJs, which is evident in its no-frills packaging and minimalist design. The simplicity of the presentation likely prioritizes functionality over aesthetics, but I do wish it at least had some kind of design on the cover at least.

In the years following its release, "Levitating" and the rest of the Future Nostalgia evolved into one of the most impactful pop culture moments of the decade so far. This album was released at a particularly dark time, just about a week into the first lockdown for the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. That wasn't exactly the opportune time to release a dance pop album that was created with the intention of it being performed and celebrated in clubs, arenas, festivals, and dancefloors around the world. But because this music radiates the energy of togetherness and celebrating the unifying power of music, I think Future Nostalgia actually took on a life of its own in a way that it otherwise wouldn't have if under different circumstances.

"It's a song that just makes me feel so good, it makes me want to dance. But then once it's out and into the world, almost that song doesn’t belong to me anymore but it belongs to everyone that's come to see the show and the memories that it holds for them, and it excites me so much to get out and perform a song that has just kind of taken a life of its own and has created memories," Dua said at the end of her episode of the Song Exploder podcast, which fully encapsulates just how special "Levitating" is for so many people.

Thanks for reading! I would love for you to check out more of my reviews of Dua Lipa's music, including my 5 year anniversary review of Future Nostalgia, as well as my review of Radical Optimism + a special UK exclusive picture disc vinyl of her classic "One Kiss". Many more are linked below and coming soon! ✨