No Trainees Allowed
The single, out February 15, follows the previously released single “Houdini”
Dua Lipa mastered the art of moving on long ago. On her self-titled debut album, she kicked an ex to the curb without a second thought on “IDGAF,” then used him as a textbook example of what not to do on “New Rules.” When another came crawling back during her Future Nostalgia era on “Don’t Start Now,” she did a full 180 and put herself first. With her third album on the horizon, Lipa is readying to move on once again — this time from the “Training Season” she’s outgrown.
“I had been on a string of bad dates, and the last one was the final straw,” the singer shared in a statement about the origin of “Training Season,” out Feb. 15. “The next morning I arrived to the studio to Caroline and Tobias asking me how it all went and I immediately declared ‘TRAINING SEASON IS OVER,’ and like the best ‘day after’ debriefs with your mates, we had a lot of laughs and it all quickly came together from there.”
Lipa launched her latest era in November 2023 with the grand disappearing act “Houdini.” If that song was a notice of her potentially flighty nature, “Training Season” is her making good on those promises.
“While it is obviously about that feeling when you are just absolutely done telling people…men specifically in this case, how to date you right; it is also about my training season being over and me growing with every experience,” she continued. “I have never felt more confident, clear or empowered. And while it may be that training season is never over for any of us, you start to see the beauty in finding that person to experience it with. You stop looking for the trainees and become more interested in having someone where you are and someone to grow with.”
As always, Lipa is keeping her head forward. “Houdini” hasn’t yet reached the heights of some of her previous singles, but that doesn’t concern her. “They take so long and never get to Number One, but they stay around for a long time,” she recently told Rolling Stone in this month’s cover story about her single releases. “As long as the songs stick around and people are listening to them, I’m cool with that.”