Dua Lipa Brings 'Radical Optimism' to Her Opening Monologue

The big picture

Counting on double duty hosting and acting
SNL
Dua Lipa's monologue and cold open gave the show a fresh tone.
Lipa's monologue included funny stories about her parents and her online presence.
Kenan Thompson also does a funny sketch about the current college protests.

Dua Lipa I was doing double duty this week Saturday night live. Hosting and serving as the musical guest, Lipa has been on the show in the past only as a musical guest, but this is her third time on the show and her first time performing! While this is one of the first times we've seen Lipa shine in a more comedic light, she's been flexing her acting chops more and more in films like clay.

Her cold open and monologue was a slower start to the show, but her monologue was full of Lipa's fresh energy and while the cold open might not have been the most memorable the show has had , both of which served to set Lipa's tone in the episode. .

Kenan Thompson saves what could be an awkward cold open

In the episode's cold open, a talk show had parents of Columbia students on the show to talk about the protests that have started happening on college campuses across the United States. The student marches in favor of Palestine have been inspiring for many and when a parent (Kenan Thompson), said it was great to see the next generation standing up for what they believe in.

But when asked if his own daughter was going to the protests, he was less open to the idea, just because of the money he's spent to have her attend an Ivy League school. The cold open went back and forth like that, with Thompson saying he was happy for “his” kids to go to protests and speak out, but his daughter was going to walk at graduation if she had to pay tuition during COVID. The sketch was funny enough, but not really for the history books.

Dua Lipa brings her parents into her opening monologue

Lipa's monologue wasn't very energetic, but it was nice to see Lipa laughing and talking about her parents (who were in the audience). He talked about how they like to party and how he saw them at a club once while he was with his friends. She also talked about how people react to her online: Go girl, give us your all! While Lipa is now expanding her career with roles like her cameo in the barbie film, she is still a musician first and foremost. Promoting his new album, Radical optimismLipa said she has to describe the meaning of the album's title frequently.

Taking questions from the audience, Andrew Dismukes gave Lipa a situation that needed a positive outlook (talking about how his wife is leaving him because he called his mom in the bedroom) and then Bowen Yang he asked if his doctor was telling him to stop drinking. He was funny and cute and showed us how cool Lipa is.

The full episode of Saturday night live is available to stream on Peacock in the US