Dua Lipa reps for the Horns, takes ACL Fest 'to the moon' on Saturday

Dua Lipa is good, actually. Her wave of disco-tinged club songs are memorable. She’s present and lively onstage—wielding fan energy and throwing it right back at Austin City Limits Music Festival. And she continued a long-standing fest tradition of donning a University of Texas jersey and saying nice things about the Horns Saturday night.

“There was a big game and you guys won,” she told Zilker Park Saturday. Yes, Texas defeated OU and everyone wore burnt orange . So did the U.K. star.

“What do you think? See how alluring I am to all you guys?” she asked.

But then she played a moving song, “Be the One.” (She wore the No. 1 too, which everyone does.)

That’s the thing about pop. Powerbrokers can engineer audience, but not soul. We are only what we leave in others’ hearts.

“Are we ready to go to the moon?” Dua Lipa asked the American Express stage Saturday night. She played “Levitating” and lots of fireworks shot out.

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The sound quality was muffled and her mix wasn’t loud enough. Yet amid dusty field conditions so gross you could see particles when you shined an iPhone light at the grounds, zombie patrons mouthed the words. She captured our attention with a multitude of background dancers and red lights. And a pulsating house band.

It’s relevant, purposeful dance music with a point of view. It plays out like the most menacing Pilates class ever.

“I love spending time and enjoying the city and getting to know it,” she said, dapping up her time in a week bookmarked by taking Broken Spoke dance classes. “The drinks are good and the food is good and the vibes are amazing.”

When’s the last time you’ve been to a nightclub? Young people go less now . Most of the populace writes off the noise as hollow at best and sinful at worst. Shoot, I used to work sound at a janky local spot. You’d load speakers in the evening and put them in the back of a van until 5 a.m. Yet like this headlining set, the ritual of unraveling breakbeats and big ripples of bass was lowkey revolutionary.

Dua’s used her platform to deride “genocide” in the Middle East . And stand up for LGBTQ rights. And blast sexism in her profession .

The history of house music is about partying in the shadows, on the margins of society . Dua Lipa won by running on this spirit.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Dua Lipa reps for the Horns, takes ACL Fest 'to the moon' on Saturday