Given the often-aggressive nature of his music and his typically stoic/stern demeanor, many were surprised last week when it was revealed that Reznor was deeply moved by a song from pop star Dua Lipa. He said in an interview, “I heard my daughter, who’s six, singing Dua Lipa the other day. She’s so into it, and it was so cool. Like, this is her music, you know? This is her thing… It really reminded me that the art of writing a well-crafted song. I teared up listening to a Dua Lipa track the other day because it was just a really well-done piece of music, you know? It was clever. It felt good. It’s difficult!”
That made headlines, but notably, he didn’t say exactly which of Lipa’s songs had that affect on him. That naturally led to plenty of fan speculation. Now Reznor has put an end to the confusion, so congratulations to anybody who guessed “Levitating.”
Over the weekend, Stereogum shared the Reznor quote on Instagram, and one user commented, “I need to know which Dua Lipa song made Trent f*cking Reznor tear up.” Reznor himself responded, commenting, “it was Levitating. Her execution was spot on and when she got to the ‘sugarboo’ line it broke me.”
While pop music hasn’t historically been Reznor’s lane, he’s not a stranger to it: He and Atticus Ross produced and co-wrote Halsey’s 2021 album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power.
Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.