Dua Lipa seems like she’s come to terms with the nickname Dula Peep.
The musician addressed the funny name — made famous by Wendy Williams — during an interview on BBC Radio 1 with host Greg James on Friday. During the wide-ranging interview, which was part of the promotion for her new song, “Houdini,” a fan called into the show to give his unbridled opinion about Dula Peep.
“I think Dula Peep is a better name than Dua Lipa,” the fan named Lewis said.
A stunned but amused Lipa reacted with a simple, “Ah!”
“Dula Peep was a, it’s a Wendy Williams classic,” host Greg James said in response. “It’s good, it’s quite — it gets in your head, doesn’t it Lewis? That name.”
The name Dula Peep started back in 2018 when Lipa was still a fresh face in Hollywood. Wendy Williams, the cultural icon that she is, created the nickname by mispronouncing the singer’s name during an episode of The Wendy Williams Show.
The fan told BBC Radio 1 (and Lipa herself) that Dula Peep “sounds more fun and it’s cute” than the singer’s Albanian name.
“Sounds more fun?!” Lipa said. “That’s a big diss, ‘sounds more fun.’”
Lipa was a good sport about the whole thing and was smiling the entire time. James agreed that Dua Lipa is a great name but that “Dula Peep is slightly funnier.”
“I guess it’s got a bit more of a bounce,” Lipa said, agreeing with James that it sounds more musical.
On top of Dula Peep, there’s another viral nickname for the singer, but this one comes from a viral TikTok mom who calls her “Lipa Dupa.”
“Oh, Lipa Dupa,” Lipa said laughing and nodding that she was well aware of the video.
Lipa has addressed the name in the past, saying in 2019 that she was fine with fans referring to her as Dula Peep. In an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Lipa said she’s used to having her name mispronounced after growing up in London with an Albanian name.
“I feel like I just wanted a normal name: Sarah, Hannah, Chloe, anything, I’ll take it,” Lipa said at the time.
The musician recently released her first single “Houdini” as part of her new era (that includes red hair) and forthcoming album. This will be her first new album since the wildly popular Future Nostalgia came out in 2020. The song is co-produced by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and Danny L Harle and follows the signature disco-pop style she’s become known for.
