CBS News
Dua Lipa’s committed to her music, despite the “stigma around pop” | 60 Minutes
Plenty of teenagers want to become pop stars, but few convince their parents to let them pack their bags and move to another country to try and make it big. That’s what Dua Lipa did when she was just 15 years old. She’d taken some singing lessons, but didn’t know anything about the business of making music. Turns out, she’s a quick study. At 29 she’s now one of the top female recording artists in the world. Take a look at what happened in June when she headlined Britain’s biggest music festival, Glastonbury.. She was singing one of the first songs she released nine years ago. Back then hardly anyone knew who Dua Lipa was. But at Glastonbury, 100,000 people came to see her. They sang along to her every word.
Dua Lipa: Glastonbury as loud as you can! Come on.
Crowd singing: I can be the one!
Dua Lipa: Oh my God, One more time. Louder!
Crowd: I can be the one!
Dua Lipa: I love you guys, you’re making my dreams come true. Louder!
Crowd: I can be the one!
Crowd: I can be the one!
Dua Lipa: It’s unbelievable seeing that many people sing back at you.
Dua Lipa: I couldn’t believe that it was happening in that moment, you know? I’d dreamt about being on that stage my whole life. I’d thought about it, I’d wished it, I–
Anderson Cooper: You’d envisioned it?
Dua Lipa: I’d envisioned it so many times.
Dua Lipa: I’d written down “I want to headline Glastonbury on the Pyramid Stage on the Friday night,” being very specific about the Friday night so I could party afterwards. (laughter)
Anderson Cooper: Wait a minute. So even in your– your dream job it was do Friday night so you could stay at Glastonbury—
Dua Lipa: So I could stay Saturday, Sunday.
Anderson Cooper: And go out dancing in the with and be in the crowds.
Dua Lipa: Absolutely. (laugh) Absolutely, you know? You gotta be specific about your dreams, you know?
60 Minutes
Dua Lipa isn’t afraid to admit…she enjoys a good time…
And that’s what her music is all about..
The songs are fun and flirtatious.
She sings of boy breakups and girl power…
Late nights and dark clubs.
It is pure pop.. and Dua Lipa’s got no problem with that.
Dua Lipa: You’re always met with some kind of pushback as a female artist, if you’re not, like, with a guitar or with a piano, just like, “Oh. She can’t sing. Oh. It’s all processed. Oh. It’s this. Oh. It’s whatever.”
Dua Lipa: I just think there’s just, like, a stigma around– pop music.
Anderson Cooper: But that was the music which you wanted to do from the beginning.
Dua Lipa: Because I loved it. That’s the music that makes me get up and dance.
Don’t let the laid back demeanor fool you.
Dua Lipa has worked hard and come a long way.. to make all this look easy.
Dua, whose name means love in Albanian, was born in London. Her parents had moved there from Kosovo, after the war in Bosnia broke out in 1992. She started singing lessons at 9, but her family returned to Kosovo when she was 11. Four years later she decided to go back to Britain and try and become a pop star.
Anderson Cooper: That was the plan?
Dua Lipa: That was the plan always.
Anderson Cooper: The pitch to your parents was–
Dua Lipa: I’m gonna go to school–
Anderson Cooper: “In order to go to a British university, I need to go to go to”–
Dua Lipa: Yes–
Anderson Cooper: “High school in England.”
Dua Lipa: Yeah. That was the initial pitch.
Her father Dukagjin Lipa is now her manager…
60 Minutes
Anderson Cooper: Did you buy that pitch? (laugh)
Dukagjin Lipa: Of course we did. But– but (laughter) she’s underplayin’ the– the– the fact that– that she was always very mature as a child—
Anderson Cooper: Even at fift– at 15-
Dukagjin Lipa: –e– even at– at– at 15. and yeah, it is a little bit crazy sayin’ like, “Oh, 15 years old she pers– persuaded you to to let her go.” But her maturity and our relationship was–
Anderson Cooper: You knew she could handle it.
Dukagjin Lipa: Of course.
Anderson Cooper: It sounds like you were a very confident 15-year-old.
Dua Lipa: Yeah. I think more confident than I am now, for sure– (laughter)
Anderson Cooper: Really?
In London she immediately started recording herself singing covers of her favorite artists…and putting the videos on Youtube.
This is one of the first ones she made in 2011.
She was living with a family friend, but was pretty much on her own. She skipped school so often she flunked out.
Dua Lipa: Basically I got expelled. And– I remember calling my parents and they’re like, “OK. Well, you did this. Find yourself a school or you’re going to come back to Kosovo ”
She did find another high school and graduated… but decided college could wait.
Her cover songs online had gotten some notice… And just three years after leaving Kosovo….18-year-old Dua Lipa got a record deal with Warner Brothers.
Dua Lipa: I walked in with a dream of, “I want to sing. I wanna perform. I wanna write.” But I had no idea of what comes with it, or what other things I have to do, or even what goes into the promotion of a record.
60 Minutes
While working on her first album.. she began releasing singles .. and performing wherever she could.
Dua Lipa: We were doing really small shows, where the stage was like a step above the floor.
Anderson Cooper: So how many people– like, for your first performances?
Dua Lipa: About 10.
Anderson Cooper: 10. Wow.
Dua Lipa: 10 About 10.
Anderson Cooper: And how many were like friends and family?
Dua Lipa: Well, none. But they all got offered a drink to come and watch. So that was how we got them to come and watch– watch us perform.
Anderson Cooper: It’s like Puppet Show in “Spinal Tap.” It’s like, “Beer and Dua Lipa”–
Dua Lipa: Yeah. It’s– it’s both of those together. Exactly.
That all changed in 2017 when her first album came out and she made this music video in a hotel in Miami for a song called, “New Rules.”
It became her first major hit in America.
The album would earn Dua Lipa two Grammys – one of them for best new artist.
When she sang “New Rules” at the Brit Awards on live TV in 2018 the reviews were positive.. But some viewers’ comments online weren’t. One in particular went viral.
Anderson Cooper: The comment was from somebody that said, “I love her lack of energy. Go girl–”
Dua Lipa: “Go girl.”
Anderson Cooper: “Give us nothing”
Dua Lipa: “Give us nothing.” Yeah. (laugh)
Anderson Cooper: You remember the words.
Dua Lipa: Yeah, yeah, yeah
Dua Lipa: It just spread like wildfire–
Dua Lipa: That I had no stage presence, or I couldn’t perform
Dua Lipa: So I was like, “All right. Well, I’m just gonna prove to you, that I can perform, and I can dance, and I can do all these things.”
60 Minutes
Dua Lipa may have wanted to prove her doubters wrong, but when her second album called “Future Nostalgia” was ready to be released two years later, the timing could not have been worse.
Dua Lipa: My second album came out March 2020. At the very beginning of the pandemic.
Anderson Cooper: Was there any talk of delaying?
Dua Lipa: Yeah, there was. But because I had spent so long working on it, I was like, “This album has to come out.”
With much of the world locked down, it wasn’t clear if anyone would want to listen to dance songs.. Or how she could even promote the album?
Dua Lipa: My whole idea was that, “This is a record that’s supposed to be played in the clubs.” I envisioned myself in the club.
Anderson Cooper: In the producing (laugh) of it, the whole thing is in the club–
Dua Lipa: The whole thing is in the club. (laugh)
James Corden “Dua, how are you?”
Dua Lipa: “Good, how are you?”
Three days after the album’s release. She gamely appeared on the “Late, Late Show With James Corden.” Her home had flooded, and she was renting a small studio apartment.
Dua Lipa: (laugh) Oh my God. And I was having really– (music) like, a bad hair day– (laugh)
Dua Lipa: (laugh) Everyone coming together in their living rooms and their kitchens to, like, make this happen. It’s crazy.
Anderson Cooper: I love that you were in some random apartment.
Dua Lipa: Yeah, so you can see from there how close I am to, like, the cupboards above– the oven, and the like, stovetop.
Anderson Cooper: This is you kicking off the release globally of your album?
Dua Lipa: Globally of my (laugh) album.
The new album was an extraordinary success. Commercially and critically. Billboard, Rolling Stone, and others called it one of the best of the year, and Dua Lipa was dubbed “the Quarantine Queen.”
60 Minutes
Anderson Cooper: It worked out in a weird way,
Dua Lipa: Yeah. It did. It didn’t end up being, you know, the– the night club experience, but it ended up being the kitchen dance parties, and the soundtrack to people’s workouts at home, to kind of keep them sane during that time.
Anderson Cooper: It also gave people, the fantasy of being out at the club–
Dua Lipa: Being out, I–I hope so,
In May she released her third album, called “Radical Optimism.” And is now rehearsing for a yearlong tour in 28 countries.
Dua Lipa: I’m still, like, getting my timing while I’m rehearsing, those first beginning notes, the (singing), they’re really fast. So I just have to, like, practice to make sure that I don’t slow the song down and miss my timing.
In just nine years of releasing music…Dua Lipa has reached a level of success even she never imagined…her songs have been streamed by fans more than 45 billion times.
Anderson Cooper: I saw some writers who’ve said that in your songs– they don’t have a sense of who you are.
Dua Lipa: Mmm
Anderson Cooper: You’re not pouring out your innermost fears and desires and wants.
Dua Lipa: Yeah. It’s something that I just naturally hold back. some people are just so– ruthless with their own private life that they decide to put it all out in a song, because they know that it’s gonna attract people’s attention. And for me, it was always important to make music that people really loved. Not because I was putting someone out on blast, or not because I’m doing it for the clickbait at maybe someone else’s expense.
Dua Lipa’s music may not be controversial, but some statements she’s made over the past few years about Israel have been. She’s called the current war in Gaza genocide, and in 2021 a well-known rabbi took out this full page ad in the New York Times criticizing her.
Dua Lipa: There was a lot of words kinda thrown at me. Things that I don’t believe represent who I am or what I believe in at all. Like I’ve always only ever wanted– peace, really. It’s devastating what’s happening over there. There’s bombs happening between both Israel and Palestine, and children are dying and families are being separated. And it’s just devastating to sit back and– and– and see it happen.
Anderson Cooper: Some people were saying what you said was antisemitic and–
Dua Lipa: Yeah.Yeah.
Anderson Cooper: –and–
Dua Lipa: Yeah. And– and it’s just not– I think it was very unfairly treated by the Times.
Anderson Cooper: Did that experience make you reticent to be outspoken again?
Dua Lipa: No, because it hasn’t stopped me from talking about things that I believe in.
Whatever Dua Lipa’s political or personal opinions may be.. for now ..you won’t find them in her music.
She wants that to be something that will help lift you up..
Get you out.. And maybe.. Just maybe take a spin on the dance floor.
Produced by John Hamlin. Associate producer, Kara Vaccaro. Broadcast associates, Grace Conley and Aria Een. Edited by Michael Mongulla.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
If you aren’t paying off your balance in full each month, it’s easy for your credit card debt to grow and become a crushing burden, especially in today’s economic climate. Not only are Americans racking up a record amount of credit card debt right now — the total is sitting at $1.17 trillion currently, up from $1.14 trillion in the second quarter of the year — but today’s high credit card rates can result in hefty interest charges that make it tough to pay down any balance you’re carrying from one month to the next.
As interest accumulates on your revolving credit card balances, you may be looking for solutions to tackle what you owe. There are lots of debt relief strategies you can consider, but one option that may seem particularly appealing is dipping into your retirement savings through a 401(k) hardship loan. After all, a 401(k) account is a sizable asset that’s already yours, and borrowing from it may seem like an easy way to regain financial stability.
However, tapping into a 401(k) for any purpose is a significant decision, one that can have long-term consequences. So before pursuing this option, it’s essential to understand whether a 401(k) loan can be used to pay off your credit card debt, and if so, whether it’s truly the best solution to do so.
Tackle your credit card debt now with the help of a debt relief expert.
Can you use a 401(k) hardship loan to pay off credit card debt?
It is possible to use a 401(k) loan to pay off credit card debt. Most 401(k) plans allow participants to borrow a portion of their account balance, and the loans are then repaid with interest over a set period. Since you’re borrowing your own money, the interest you pay goes back into your account, which can make this option seem attractive compared to high-rate credit card debt.
However, that doesn’t mean you can use a 401(k) hardship loan, which is a specific type of 401(k) loan, to do so. There are strict rules governing 401(k) hardship loans, and they are generally meant for urgent financial needs. Using the loan to pay off credit card debt may not meet the hardship criteria set by some plan administrators, as hardship withdrawals are generally restricted to specific circumstances defined by the IRS, including:
- Medical expenses
- Costs related to purchasing a primary residence
- Tuition and educational fees
- Expenses to prevent eviction or foreclosure
- Funeral expenses
- Certain expenses for repairing damage to your primary residence
But while paying off your credit card debt with a hardship loan may not be allowed, you do have another option: taking out a regular 401(k) loan to pay off your credit card debt. These loans allow you to borrow up to 50% of your vested account balance or $50,000, whichever is less, for nearly any purpose. The loan must be repaid within a certain number of years through payroll deductions, and interest rates are typically prime rate plus 1%.
It’s important to note, though, that using a 401(k) loan for debt repayment can derail your retirement savings. When you do this, the money you withdraw is no longer earning compound interest, which can significantly impact your nest egg over time. So while paying off credit card debt is important, it’s crucial to weigh the short-term relief against the long-term consequences of borrowing from your retirement funds.
Find out what other credit card debt relief options are available to you.
What are the alternatives to using a 401(k) loan for credit card debt?
If using a 401(k) loan to pay off your debt feels risky, you may want to consider exploring other, more sustainable options. Here are some of the most effective strategies include:
Debt consolidation loans
A debt consolidation loan from a bank or credit union allows you to combine multiple credit card balances into one manageable loan with a lower interest rate. This approach simplifies your payments and can save you money in interest over time.
Balance transfer credit cards
If you have a solid credit score, using a balance transfer credit card to cut down on interest could be a smart move. These cards typically offer a 0% introductory APR for a set period (usually 12–21 months), allowing you to pay off your debt without accruing additional interest.
Debt settlement
Debt settlement (also known as debt forgiveness) involves negotiating with creditors to settle your debt for less than the full amount owed. This can be an effective way to reduce your debt burden, and with the right strategy, you could reduce your credit card debt by 30% to 50% on average. However, the settlement process can hurt your credit score, so it’s typically a last resort for those facing significant financial hardship.
The bottom line
While a regular 401(k) loan can technically be used to pay off credit card debt, you can’t typically use a 401(k) hardship loan for these purposes. But either way, borrowing from your retirement fund to pay off credit card debt is a high-stakes decision with significant risks to your financial future. In many cases, the immediate relief may not outweigh the long-term consequences. So, you may want to consider alternative options instead, many of which can offer more manageable ways to eliminate credit card debt.
CBS News
Chicago owed nearly $20 million in police overtime for special events this year; taxpayers may be on the hook
CITY HALL — The city spent $22.6 million on police overtime for special events this year but has only been reimbursed $2 million, leaving taxpayers to cover the remaining costs.
City law requires special event producers to pay for police services beyond 12 shifts. However, an investigation by Block Club Chicago and CBS Chicago revealed through records requests that the city has not been retroactively charging for those costs.
Chicago hosts hundreds of street festivals each year, with approximately 1,300 events held between 2021 and 2023. During that period, nearly 2,800 Chicago police officers logged a combined total of 27,000 overtime hours to patrol these events, according to a CBS News Data Team analysis of police overtime records and special event permits.
At a Chicago Police budget hearing on Friday, officials confirmed that a significant portion of the overtime associated with special events has gone unreimbursed, attributing the issue to a “decentralized system.”
In 2024, the police department spent $22.6 million on special event overtime across various music, street, and neighborhood festivals. About $7.2 million of that is attributed to ticketed events like Lollapalooza, the Chicago Marathon, and NASCAR. However, the city has only been reimbursed for Lollapalooza and the Chase Corporate Challenge, totaling just under $2 million, police officials disclosed on Friday.
The 2024 figures are an increase from 2023, which saw $19.2 million spent in police overtime across all special events, police officials said. It’s currently unknown how much of that was reimbursed to the department. Special events include large ticketed festivals, street festivals, athletic events and bar crawls. Chicago hosted 677 special events in 2023, according to records obtained by CBS Chicago.
The revelation aligns with months of unanswered public records requests directed at the Department of Finance, which has been unable to produce invoices for police overtime at street festivals.
While the department did provide invoice data for traffic control aides at events like Riot Fest, Lollapalooza, and several 5Ks, it referred CBS News to the city’s Public Safety Administration for police overtime. However, the Public Safety Administration has not responded to records requests for police overtime details and did not return requests for comment.
“What may make more sense is we can provide all of our historical data about what our costs are, and we can provide that to DCASE, we can provide that to the Department of Finance. We can give a unified city service quote at the front end,” said Ryan Fitzsimons, Deputy Director at the Chicago Police Department.
During a budget hearing for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events last week, officials revealed that their department is not involved in the invoicing process for reimbursing police overtime, raising concerns among aldermen that permits are being issued to event producers with outstanding balances.
On Friday, police officials said that despite the lack of reimbursement, they do not have the authority to block special event permits unless there are safety concerns. This lack of enforcement power leads to ongoing accountability issues with invoicing, they noted.
“We conduct numerous after-action meetings with OEMC and other city agencies. The problem is that, while we identify these reimbursement issues during those meetings, they are not addressed in subsequent permits issued the following year,” said Chief Duane DeVries, head of the Bureau of Counterterrorism with the Chicago Police Department.
After each permitted special event, the Chicago Police Department generates an “event evaluation form” that tracks the number of incidents and officers assigned to the event.
On Friday several aldermen requested event evaluation forms for various Chicago’s special events.
In July, the CBS News Data Team and Block Club Chicago requested event evaluation data for various events from 2019 to 2024, including PrideFest, Market Days, Wicker Park Fest, and Lollapalooza. The department said the evaluations were kept on paper. A request for those documents was made in August. As of last week, the department is still working on that request.
All special event producers are required to present security plans to Chicago Police for feedback before the city’s events department issues a permit. The amount of private security is determined by various factors, including the event’s history, location, current events and crime trends. Event organizers suggest a security plan and the police department approves, denies and makes suggestions.
Because of this, some special event producers have argued that they should not be required to pay for police overtime.
“It’s like someone coming and painting your house and then saying, ‘I want you to pay for it.’ … Well, I didn’t want you to paint my house,” Hank Zemola, CEO of Special Events Management, previously said. “I ordered all this (security) so we wouldn’t have to do that.”
Special Events Management puts on numerous special events including street races and neighborhood street festivals. The company organizes some of the city’s most popular street festivals like Pridefest, Ribfest and others.
By city law, street festivals cannot charge an entry fee but can propose suggested donations for entry. With suggested donations in decline, inflation making festivals more expensive to produce and consumers spending less, Zemola estimates that at least 50% of the company’s events this year lost money.
Still, with the City Council looking for cost-saving measures aldermen are eager to close the loophole that is hemorrhaging money from this city.
“I hope that with the information … your department provides us, we can, from the council side, work on maybe a better process that gives you guys … a seat at the table … so that we can better manage and join our resources,” said Ald. Maria Hadden (49th).
This story was produced under a collaboration with Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit newsroom focused on Chicago’s neighborhoods, and CBS News Chicago. Melody Mercado contributed to this report.
CBS News
Prosecutors urge judge to consider postponing Trump’s sentencing until after his presidency
President-elect Donald Trump’s six-year New York criminal odyssey might need to continue for at least another four, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Lawyers for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wrote in a letter to Justice Juan Merchan that Trump should not be sentenced for his crimes until after he completes his second term in office. That would be the year 2029, more than a decade after the investigation into Trump’s coverup of a “hush money” payment began.
This is a breaking story. It will be updated.
Can you use a 401(k) hardship loan to pay off credit card debt?
New York prosecutors say they will oppose dismissing Trump’s hush money conviction
Chicago owed nearly $20 million in police overtime for special events this year; taxpayers may be on the hook
Can you use a 401(k) hardship loan to pay off credit card debt?
New York prosecutors say they will oppose dismissing Trump’s hush money conviction