Dua Lipa surprised the crowd at the ACM Awards Thursday night when she joined Chris Stapleton for a duet of his song “Think I’m in Love With You.” The pop star revealed it was actually her who hit up Stapleton to collaborate.
“It was my idea,” said Lipa in the interview with Bobby Bones. “I’m such a fan of Chris and I just reached out and said, ‘Want to do something together?’ And this came about.”
Stapleton also joined Entertainment Tonight and confirmed that the two had spoken about the collab for some time but only practiced the performance several days ago. “I think she threw herself into the mix,” Stapleton said. “We got on the phone and talked about it and worked on it a little bit. We really only kind of put together what we did like two days ago.”
“It was kind of a whirlwind of a thing to do — but it was awesome,” Stapleton added.
Also speaking to ET, Lipa said it was a “big dream of mine” to work with Stapleton, calling their performance of the Higher track “really special.”
“I’m a big, big Chris Stapleton fan, that’s for sure, and I love country music,” she said. “I love the storytelling, I love the passion, and it was just so beautiful to be able to dive into that world a little bit, just kind of see it firsthand. It was really special.”
“Think I’m in Love With You,” written solo by Stapleton for his 2023 album, Higher, is already groovy as a studio recording. But onstage with Lipa, it became sultry, with the singers playfully riffing and belting alongside each other. Lipa arrived onstage singing a few bars solo before Stapleton joined her. Stapleton and Lipa were backed by the country star’s band, including Morgan Stapleton on background vocals.
Stapleton called Lipa the “queen of feel-good music.” Lipa, a big fan of his music, reached out to Stapleton to suggest they sing together. They pulled together the duet in just two days, the pair revealed in a backstage interview with Bobby Bones.
Lipa’s appearance on the ACM Awards was just one of many pop-star cameos. Post Malone (who just released his country single “I Had Some Help”), Avril Lavigne, Gwen Stefani, and the country-adjacent Noah Kahan all performed on the show.