Dua Lipa says as a kid, her whole school laughed at her when she tried to sing

Dua Lipa sure has come a long way from that moment when everyone in school laughed at her attempt to sing.

Dua made a video with drag superstar Trixie Mattel in which both of them attempt to paint the cover of Dua’s new album, Radical Optimism, in under 30 minutes. While painting, Trixie interviewed Dua about her life and asked her about a choir teacher who didn’t think much of her voice.

“It was primary school, and the music teacher … [at an assembly] was like, ‘Right, who wants to sing and try out for the choir?’ And I was like, ‘Y’know what? I’d actually quite like like to do that,"” Dua tells Trixie.

She continues, “I decided to stand up in front of the whole school and he started playing on the piano. And it was in, like, this crazy high note and nothing came out [of my mouth] — just ‘eehh,’ in that moment, and the whole school started laughing. And he was just like, ‘Y’know what? Better luck next time.’ And that was it.”

Dua, who was also going to singing lessons every week in London, says it was one of the teachers there who helped her build up her confidence. When she was 9 he made her sing in front of the whole class, then moved her up into a class with the 14- and 15-year-olds.

“He celebrated me [and] my deeper, lower voice,” Dua said of that teacher.

At the end of the session, Trixie and Dua show off their paintings, neither of which are very good.