Dua Lipa’s ‘Training Season’ Lyrics List Out Exactly What She Wants in a Partner

Dua Lipa put it to music: She has raised the bar on the treatment she’ll accept from partners. The singer detailed her dating evolution in her latest single, “Training Season.” The song lyrically sets out exactly what she wants from people she dates. (Those higher standards have served her well in real life, as Lipa is now dating British actor Callum Turner.)

Lipa recounted how she wrote “Training Season” after she reached her breaking point dating.

“I had been on a string of bad dates, and the last one was the final straw,” she said in a press release accompanying the song. “The next morning I arrived to the studio to [songwriters] Caroline [Ailin] and Tobias [Jesso Jr.], asking me how it all went, and I immediately declared ‘TRAINING SEASON IS OVER,’ and like the best ‘day after’ debriefs with your mates, we had a lot of laughs and it all quickly came together from there.”

She continued, “And while it is obviously about that feeling when you are just absolutely done telling people…men specifically in this case, how to date you right; it is also about my training season being over and me growing with every experience. I have never felt more confident, clear or empowered. And while it may be that training season is never over for any of us, you start to see the beauty in finding that person to experience it with. You stop looking for the trainees and become more interested in having someone where you are and someone to grow with.”

The song lyrically echoes Lipa’s hard-earned confidence. Read the lyrics and watch the song’s music video below:

Are you, someone that I can give my heart to?
Or just the poison that I’m drawn to?
It can be hard to tell the difference late at night.
Play fair, is that a compass in your nature?
Or are you tricky cause I’ve been there
And baby I don’t need to learn that lesson twice.

But if you really wanna go there…

You should know I
Need someone to hold me close
Deeper than I’ve ever known
Whose love feels like a rodeo
Knows just how to take control
When I’m vulnerable
He’s straight talking to my soul
Conversation overload, got me feeling vertigo

Are you somebody who can go there?
’Cuz I don’t wanna have to show ya
If that ain’t you then let me know, yeah
’Cuz training season’s over

I try, to see my lovers in a good light
Don’t wanna do it just to be nice
Don’t wanna have to teach you how to love me right
I hope, it hits me like an arrow
Someone with some potential
Is it too much to ask for, who understands I

Need someone to hold me close
Deeper than I’ve ever known
Whose love feels like a rodeo
Knows just how to take control
When I’m vulnerable
He’s straight talking to my soul
Conversation overload, got me feeling vertigo

Are you somebody who can go there?
’Cuz I don’t wanna have to show ya
If that ain’t you then let me know, yeah
’Cuz training season’s over

Can you compete
Now is your time
Run when you hear that whistle blow
Are you on my team
Or stuck on the side lines
Waiting for someone to tell you to go?
for someone to tell you to go

You should know I
Need someone to hold me close deeper than I’ve ever known
Whose love feels like a rodeo
Knows just how to take control
When I’m vulnerable
He’s straight talking to my soul
Conversation overload
Cuz training season’s over