"Don't Start Now" is a song by English singer Dua Lipa. Lipa wrote the song with Caroline Ailin, Emily Warren, and its producer Ian Kirkpatrick. The song was released for digital download and streaming by Warner Records on 31 October 2019, as the lead single from her second studio album, Future Nostalgia (2020). A nu-disco song, it features a funk bassline, inspired by music by the Bee Gees, Daft Punk and Two Door Cinema Club. Elements used in the production include handclaps, a crowd noise, cowbells, synth bursts and accented strings. Lyrically, Lipa celebrates her independence and instructs a former lover to forget about their past relationship.
"Don't Start Now" received widespread critical acclaim upon its release, with many reviewers noting significant growth in Lipa's sound and vocals. Critics also praised the use of 1980s and disco sounds for standing out among other pop releases at the time. At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, the song was nominated in three categories: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance. The song peaked at number two on both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100, surpassing Lipa's 2017 song "New Rules" to become her highest-charting single on the latter. In the UK, the song registered the seventh-longest top 10 stay on the chart.
"Don't Start Now" is considered to be the beginning of a revival for disco music in 2020 as downtempo, urban-styled music previously dominated mainstream music. The music video was directed by Nabil Elderkin and filmed in Brooklyn. It features point-of-view and high-angle shots of Lipa dancing at a crowded nightclub and masquerade ball. To promote the song, Lipa performed it on many television programmes and awards shows, including the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards, the 2019 American Music Awards and the 2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards. Numerous remixes have accompanied the song, including an extended Live in L.A. Remix which features a 19-piece live band, for which an accompanying music video directed by Daniel Carberry was also released.
Writing and production Lipa wrote "Don't Start Now" with the same team who wrote her 2017 single "New Rules": Caroline Ailin, Emily Warren and Ian Kirkpatrick. The song came about after Joe Kentish, the A&R head at Lipa's label Warner Records, challenged Kirkpatrick in late 2018 to recreate the success of "New Rules". The first writing session took place after Warren invited Ailin and Kirkpatrick to her home in Wyoming to attend a disco night at a local dive bar where songs including Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" (1978) were played. Inspired by that night, they decided to write a disco song the next morning as "it's the most fun to dance to". The song's initial concept was based on Ailin's feelings of responsibility towards her ex following their relationship.
Kirkpatrick also worked with producer J Kash, inviting several writers to help find a sound for the song, which became a back-and-forth between 1980s and disco music. They contemplated emulating music by Madonna, and created more than 10 reference tracks for Lipa to sample and choose from. Ailin, Warren and Kirkpatrick eventually co-wrote the song with Lipa in January 2019. The cowbell used on the song was present on the first demo and inspired by Two Door Cinema Club's music. Kirkpatrick based it on Lipa's phrasing in the chorus. According to him, the strings are a combination of Kontakt Session Strings, "some weird Nexus 1970s string patch", and live strings. Although the bassline of "Don't Start Now" sounds live, Kirkpatrick created it with MIDI. It was influenced by similar basslines the Bee Gees and Daft Punk used in their music that he had listened to in his youth. Kirkpatrick used a Scarbee MM-Bass plug-in for the leading bass sound and played it on a keyboard before modifying it. He wanted to abstain from disco for a more 1990s sound in the bridge by adding sub-bass combined with thumb bass guitar and slaps in the drop from Trilian.
Lipa recorded most of her vocals with a Telefunken ELA M 251 tube microphone. Kirkpatrick said he understood the song better after Lipa sang it and was told by Kentish that the middle eight sounded like an "after-thought". He thus spent a further two weeks completing the song before sending stems to Josh Gudwin for mixing. To improve the middle eight, Kirkpatrick added a "vocal chop", and extra drums inspired by the Weeknd's song "Can't Feel My Face". He recalled, "The first version of the drums didn't sound as fat. I was worried that the song would sound too disco, too classic. It needed something new, to make it the perfect mix of old and new". Kirkpatrick had a separate project for the chord progression before the drop to help him decide which combination of piano and synths to use. For this section, he went through 25 different ideas and incorporated them into four versions. His final rough mix included nearly 100 tracks. Kirkpatrick sent the final version to Lipa when she was attending Glastonbury Festival in June 2019. "Don't Start Now" was recorded at Zenseven Studios in Los Angeles while the vocals were recorded at TaP Studio in London. Gudwin mixed the song at Henson Studios in Hollywood while Chris Gehringer mastered it at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey.
Music and lyrics
Musically, "Don't Start Now" is a nu-disco song. It features elements of dance-pop, Eurodance and synth-pop while channeling modern disco antecedents such as French house and Italo disco. The song has a length of 3:03, and is composed in time and the key of B minor, with a tempo of 124 beats per minute. Constructed in verse-chorus form, the verses and first two choruses have an Em–Bm–G–D–A chord progression, and the bridges chorus follows a Bm–D–Em7–Fm7–Gmaj7 sequence. Several 1980s and disco tropes are included in the French bloghouse production, which also makes use of laser weapon sound effects, electro-violin stabs and handclaps. It additionally has a percolating funk bassline that interchanges with piano chords and the house beat.
The song opens with a three-chord piano intro from the first part of the chorus and a fuzz sound of a spinning record. Lipa eschews modulation in her vocals and build from a lower register to a natural use of melisma, spanning from the low note of A3 to the high note of D5. It builds with the addition of accented disco strings, and bursts of disco synths. It has a strong kick and bass pattern that uses the low-end sparingly. After every fourth measure, a fill is used; for example, in the snare-kick sequence that precedes the second verse. A cowbell in appears in the anthemic, 1980s synth-pop chorus, which is backed by strings. The second verse adds a rhythm guitar loop and crowd noise is added in the second chorus. During the final chorus, chordal devices from the breakdown reappear for texture, and Lipa sings in call and response.
Various critics viewed the song as a sequel to "New Rules" as both have similar themes whereas "Don't Start Now" proves that the rules created to get over an ex in the former track actually work in a breakup. According to Lipa, the lyrics have a theme of empowerment and are about "moving on" from a past relationship and "not allowing anyone to get in the way of that", while also finding confidence and happiness. She celebrates her independence, and uses bullet point instructions to address a needy former lover directly, with lyrics including, "Don't show up, don't come out / Don't start caring about me now / Walk away, you know how / Don't start caring about me now". Music critic Maura Johnston interpreted the lyrics as "post-breakup rebirth".
Release and promotion Prior to the single's release, Lipa panicked, never having asked for feedback on the song. Her manager, Ben Mawson, was concerned that its disco sound was too different from music popular on American radio at the time. However, Mawson was assured by his radio promotion executive that it was "the kind of song that could change the radio". On 10 October 2019, Variety mentioned the single's release date in an article about Lipa's management but subsequently edited the release date to "soon". Fans of Lipa leaked the song's title and lyrics on Twitter on 14 October 2019. Later that month, the singer cleared her social media accounts to announce the release of "Don't Start Now". She first shared two teaser videos on social media featuring snippets of the song on 22 and 23 October 2019. YouTube Music promoted the release on billboards in London and Times Square. The song was also promoted with its own lens filter on Snapchat.
"Don't Start Now" was released for digital download and streaming on 31 October 2019 as the lead single from Lipa's second studio album, Future Nostalgia (2020). The Radio 1 Breakfast Show played the song exclusively to an eight-year-old fan of Lipa before its release. The song was sent for radio airplay in Italy the following day. It impacted contemporary hit radio formats in the United States on 5 November 2019. "Don't Start Now" has been promoted with several remixes. Ones by Dom Dolla, Purple Disco Machine, Zach Witness and Kungs were released throughout November and December 2019. A remix EP which includes all the aforementioned remixes along with one by Pink Panda was released 10 January 2020, followed by a remix by Kosovan DJ Regard on 24 January. A "Live in LA" remix that features Lipa performing with a 19-piece band was released on 21 February 2020. It was preceded by the release of a music video directed by Daniel Carberry on 10 January 2020, which includes dancers and rollerbladers in the background. The video was nominated for Best Live Video at the 2020 UK Music Video Awards.
Critical reception "Don't Start Now" received widespread acclaim from music critics. In her review for Rolling Stone, Brittany Spanos called the song "the peak of pop catharsis" and "a Studio 54 fantasy"; she said it evolved Lipa's sound and that she "finally finds her pop footing". Nick Malone of PopMatters wrote that the song displays significant growth in Lipa's sound and identity, and that she is "springing forth in full colour" with sharper and more distinguishable vocals. For Under the Radar, Conrad Duncan observed the "fantastically sleek" song played to Lipa's strengths. Los Angeles Times pop critic Mikael Wood felt Lipa's vocals had grown more soulful and suited the "delightfully rubbery" song's retro sound. Similarly, Pitchfork Matthew Strauss thought that the production suits Lipa and appreciated her non-modulated vocals, writing that "her voice sounds stronger than ever".
Laura Snapes of The Guardian cited Lipa's vocals as the song's best feature, writing that she distinguishes herself from her contemporaries with a classic style, rather than "the charts' predominant rap-influenced sound". Writing for Variety, Chris Willman felt it brought "a certain kind of deep groove and attitudinal buoyancy back onto the radio at a time we needed it most, which is anytime at all". Gigwise Jordan Emery complimented its "satisfyingly catchy hooks and interesting ideas", and "slick bassline that just breathes effortlessness and joy". Jolie Lash of Spin viewed the bassline as "pop's best in recent memory" and called the song "an 'I Will Survive' for an era when we really need the reassurance". Writing for Exclaim!, Brad Garcia says "it wasn't until she released 'Don't Start Now' that Dua Lipa became a household name."