“We thought we’d go really, really big from the very beginning”: Watch Dua Lipa cover AC/DC’s Highway To Hell during tour stop in Australia

Dua Lipa in 2024 and AC/DC in 2024 — (Image credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

Dua Lipa covered AC/DC during a recent show in Melbourne, Australia.

The British pop sensation and her backing band played a rendition of the Aussie heroes’ 1979 anthem Highway To Hell at the Rod Laver Arena on Monday (March 17). Watch her performance below.

Lipa precedes the song by saying that she intends to cover a local artist at every stop on her current tour, of which the Melbourne show was the first night. “Australia has an abundance of amazing musicians,” she adds. “So we just thought we’d go really, really big from the very beginning. If you know it, sing along.”

Lipa is touring to promote her 2024 album Radical Optimism, which she says was inspired by multiple genres including rock. Andrew Watt, known for his work on recent Ozzy Osbourne solo albums Ordinary Man (2020) and Patient Number 9 (2022), was one of the producers.

When Radical Optimism was announced, Lipa said in a statement: “A couple years ago, a friend introduced me to the term Radical Optimism. It’s a concept that resonated with me, and I became more curious as I started to play with it and weave it into my life. It struck me – the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm.

“At the same time, I found myself looking through the music history of psychedelia, trip-hop and Britpop. It has always felt so confidently optimistic to me, and that honesty and attitude is a feeling I took into my recording sessions.”

Lipa’s tour of Australia will continue with two more Melbourne shows on March 19 and 20. She’ll play on the continent until March 29, then tour Europe in May and June. She’ll tour North America from September to October.

As for AC/DC, the hard rockers will tour North America in April and May, then play in Europe from June to August.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.