Dua Lipa guest-hosted Monday night’s episode of Kimmel, delivering a punchline-packed monologue and remotely interviewing Gwen Stefani.
Lipa is the latest artist to step in for Jimmy Kimmel, who has been taking a break this summer to spend more time with his family. By her own admission, the evening was a first for the English superstar. “It’s a totally new experience for me, and I’ve never done a monologue or interviewed celebrities. But before this year, I’d never gone to Whole Foods in a hazmat suit. So let’s give it a shot.”
Lipa has a crisp delivery and some pretty good comic timing. She’s not one of those rare performers who can elevate mediocre jokes, but she ably tears into the better material. Later on, she showed her admiration for the show’s Guillermo Rodriguez with a large back tattoo, and he responded with his own displays of affection. She also went undercover with cranky senior citizens and listened to them remotely criticize pictures of herself.
Her interview with Stefani began as a plug for their forthcoming remix of Lipa’s “Physical”, produced by Mark Ronson. It was supposed to come out August 21st, but both the song and Club Future Nostalgia: The Remix Album have been pushed back one week. As Lipa explained, the holdup is the “animations.” She said, “Our song will come out August 28th because as you know, we’re doing an animation for every single song on the record. So it’s going to take a little bit of time. But it’s going to be amazing, and just wait until they hear you.”
The two artists found a chemistry early on, when Lipa joked, “I did learn to spell ‘bananas’ because of you.” Stefani responded, “I feel honored to have been a spelling teacher for many people around the world. But what’s weird about it is that I’m actually a very bad speller, so I feel like it was God’s gift to me to gift to others.” Check out the monologue and interview below.
Two weeks ago, Dua Lipa shared the “Levitating” remix featuring Missy Elliott, Madonna, and Blessed Madonna. She’s also put out fresh versions of “Hallucinate” by Tensnake and Paul Woolford. She recently provided the hook for J Balvin’s “UN DÍA (ONE DAY)”and co-wrote Sia’s charity single “Saved My Life”.
Earlier this year, Gwen Stefani performed “Nobody But You” with Blake Shelton at the Grammys. Last year, she released a 15th anniversary reissue of Love.Angel.Music.Baby.
