"New Rules" is a song by English singer Dua Lipa from her eponymous debut studio album (2017). The song was written by Caroline Ailin, Emily Warren, and Ian Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick also handled the production and offered it to Lipa after it was rejected by multiple artists. The song was released through Warner Bros. Records for digital download and streaming on 7July 2017 as the album's seventh single. It is an electropop and tropical house track with an EDM production that includes dance-pop beats and dancehall rhythms. The lyrics see Lipa giving herself a set of rules in order to get over a former boyfriend. Lipa stated that it was the breakup song that she wished she had when she was breaking up with someone.
"New Rules" was met with acclaim from music critics. The song was nominated for British Single of the Year at the 2018 Brit Awards and appeared on year-end lists from publications including Billboard, The Guardian and The New York Times. Commercially, the song became Lipa's first number one single on the UK Singles Chart and reached that position in five other territories. it is the most streamed song by a British female in the UK and it broke the record for the most weeks on the US Mainstream Top 40 chart. It was the second-most played song of the 2010s decade on the format. Additionally, it became Lipa's first top 10 entry on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 6. The song is certified multi-platinum in 13 territories, including sextuple platinum in the UK and diamond in Canada, France, and Poland. The song's commercial success has been attributed to the popularity of its music video.
The music video for "New Rules" was directed by Henry Scholfield and takes place at the Confidante Hotel in Miami. It features Lipa staying at a hotel room with her friends, who prevent her from getting back together with her former boyfriend. The video was met with critical acclaim, some of whom commended its themes of female empowerment. It made Lipa the youngest female artist with a video to surpass one billion views on YouTube. The video was nominated for British Music Video of the Year at the 2018 Brit Awards and Best Choreography at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards. Lipa promoted the song with performances at the 2017 BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards, 2018 Brit Awards and 2018 Billboard Music Awards. Remixes by Alison Wonderland, Kream and SG Lewis were released for further promotion.
Background
"New Rules" was originally written by Caroline Ailin, Emily Warren and its producer Ian Kirkpatrick during a writing camp for English girl band Little Mix. Kirkpatrick also engineered and programmed the track, while Chris Gehringer mastered it and Josh Gudwin mixed it. According to Warren, she was told in the early years of her career to never write a song where the male partner will not "get it", but later stopped following that because she thinks the "best writing" happens when she stops worrying about what to do and just expresses herself. She added that she applied this approach with "New Rules", whose lyrics were inspired by Ailin's struggles with the temptation of getting back together with a former boyfriend. The song was passed down by a few artists, including one who thought it did not have a notable hook.
In January 2017, Dua Lipa announced through her Facebook account that she was postponing the release of her eponymous debut studio album to 2 June of that year in order to record more songs. After this, she traveled to Los Angeles, California, where Kirkpatrick played her "New Rules" and she recorded it. The song was recorded at Zenseven Studios in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, NRG Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles and Atlantic Recording Studios in Los Angeles while the vocals were recorded at TaP Studio / Strongroom 7 in London. Chris Gehringer mastered the song at Sterling Sound in New York City. When asked about the fact that she did not write the song after saying in past interviews that she preferred to write her own music, Lipa stated that her perspective had changed and that:
Music and lyrics
Musically, "New Rules" is an electropop and tropical house song. Constructed in verse-chorus form, the song is composed in time and the key of A minor with a tempo of 116 beats per minute and an Am–G–F–G chord progression. Running for 3 minutes and 29 seconds, the EDM production includes a dance-pop beat, a dancehall rhythm, tropical house keyboards and airy drum programming similar to that used in Africa and the Caribbean. The verses include a falling bass glissando, while a synth melody and pattering drums build up to the chorus drop with bashment elements, glitchy horns and string stabs. The synth line appears again in the final chorus. Lipa's vocals range from A3 to E5 and she adapts a "stern, schoolmarmish" tone. Her vocals echo with a 3/8-note ping-pong vocal-delay spin while high-feedback backing vocals also are heard. To give character to her vocals, Kirkpatrick tracked her at half the speed in some parts and digitally sped them up to twice as fast.
In the lyrics, the singer sets a list of rules to prevent her from getting back together with an ex-boyfriend. The rules are: "One: Don't pick up the phone, you know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone / Two: Don't let him in, you'll have to kick him out again / Three: Don't be his friend, you know you're going to wake up in his bed in the morning." Lipa confessed that "[t]hey're not necessarily rules I've been able to stick by. But [they're] rules that I feel like it's important to be able to tell yourself, to tell your friends... There's a reason people break up, and it's probably the same reason why you shouldn't get back together." Warren explained that the track was a self-reminder for people recovering from a break-up to not succumb to a momentary temptation since it is not "a good idea in the long term". Talking about the song, Lipa explained that "'New Rules' is quite different to a lot of tracks on the album. I wanted it to feel very new [...] It's the breakup song that I wish I had when I was breaking up with someone" and that "It's about keeping your distance from someone who's bad for you. I'm setting some rules down so [that I] won't go back to that person."
Release "New Rules" was released on 2June 2017 as the tenth track on Lipa's eponymous debut studio album; it appears as the 13th track on the album's Austrian, German and Swiss version.Citations regarding the Austrian, German and Swiss version of Dua Lipa:
The song was released for digital download and streaming through Warner Bros. Records on 7July 2017 as the album's seventh single. It was sent for radio airplay in Italy on 28July 2017. In the United States, the song impacted adult contemporary radio on 21August 2017 and contemporary hit radio the following day.
A remix of "New Rules" by Alison Wonderland was released on 25August of that year. An acoustic version of the song was released 20October. An extended play (EP) featuring remixes by Kream, Freedo, SG Lewis, MRK titled "Club Mix" as well as the one by Wonderland was released 3November. On 17November, "New Rules" was released as a CD single in Germany, with its acoustic version as its B-side. A week later, a 1980s and vaporwave-styled, Hi-NRG remix by Initial Talk was released. The DJ was inspired by "Two of Hearts" (1986) by Stacey Q and included heavy synths with SFX drums. It was accompanied by a visual featuring a fuzzy VCR footage of an old Miss Teen Canada pageant. The remix appears Japanese special edition of Dua Lipa and the Japanese edition of the album's 2018 reissue, Dua Lipa: Complete Edition.
A live piano acoustic version of "New Rules" appears as the closing track on the singer's Live Acoustic EP, released 8December of that year. The following year, another live version of Lipa's performance at the 2018 Brit Awards was released on 21February. An official live version of the song that was recorded at the 29June 2018 stop of Lipa's world tour in San Diego was released on 6September of that year; it appears as the closing track of Dua Lipa: Complete Edition. Lipa's performance of the song on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge was included on their 23 November 2018-released compilation album, BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge 2018 as the third track. A different live version of the song appears as the second track on Lipa's Deezer Sessions EP, released 11April 2019.
Critical reception "New Rules" received acclaim from music critics. AllMusic's Neil Z. Yeung complimented the song on its "house-inflected shine" in which Lipa makes "a cautionary list". Writing for Clash, Alex Green felt tracks like "New Rules" demonstrate "exactly why critics picked Lipa out as one to watch [the previous year]." Dayna Evans of The Cut labeled it a "breakup anthem", while Melinda Newman of Billboard considered it a "female-empowerment anthem". Anjali Raguraman of The Straits Times also called the song a "breakup anthem" and an "addictive, horn-laced pop tune", adding that, "The track, with its slick production and stellar vocals, oozes self-confidence and sass." Ben Hogwood of musicOMH stated that the song had themes of "assertiveness and outright feminine power" and that it felt more convincing than "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)" (2016). Rachael Scarsbrook of Renowned for Sound opined that the song makes "sure the upbeat melodies continue long into the final moments of Lipa's record, the album may almost be over but the party is just beginning."
Larisha Paul of Baeble Music deemed it as an "absolute banger" and a "timeless song". On his review of the album, Sebas E. Alonso of Spanish website Jenesaispop noted that "New Rules" had influences of the music of the 1990s. Alonso further included the track on his list of the best songs of August 2017, calling it a "summer hit". Hannah J Davies of The Guardian stated that it was "infused with EDM and tropical house without sounding too consciously trend-chasing", while Luke Holland of the same publication called it the track of the week and praised the lyrical content, though he further stated that "disposable pop is now actually this good". In another review from the publication, Ben Beaumont-Thomas named the song a "powerful pop psychodrama". Raisa Bruner of Time wrote that "'New Rules' works so well because it's both stylish and layered: As an escapist fantasy of girl-power, it's a triumph, but as a rallying cry to buck the status quo, it's even better." In a more negative review, DIYs Alim Kheraj stated that the song "is a flat tropically-tinged empowerment track that already sounds dated."
Accolades "New Rules" appeared on 2017 year-end lists by numerous publications, including unranked lists from Esquire, The Guardian, Junkee and The New York Times. Time hailed it as 2017's best song. It additionally ranked within the top 10 of year-end lists by Popjustice at number 5 and The Line of Best Fit at number 8. In NME and Entertainment Weekly, the song ranked at number 13 and 29 on their year-end lists. Stereogum placed it at number 38 on their year-end list, while Noisey thought it was 2017's 34th best song. The Fader named it the 82nd best song and Spin ranked it at number 97. Billboard ranked it at number four on the list of the best gay anthems of 2017 while the song placed at number 22 on their general list. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone ranked it at number 19 on his year-end list. "New Rules" also placed on 2010s decade-end lists from NME (21), Insider (106) and Stereogum (114). In June 2020, The Guardian ranked the song as the 94th best UK number one single.