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Dua Lipa Joins Tame Impala at London’s O2 for Surprise “Houdini” and “After Thought” Set
Dua Lipa surprised fans at Tame Impala’s London O2 show, performing “After Thought” and “Houdini” with Kevin Parker.
Dua Lipa turned up unannounced at Tame Impala’s London show at the O2 Arena on Thursday night, joining Kevin Parker for a two-song cameo that rattled the room in the best possible way. The pair moved through their 2025 collaboration “After Thought” and then circled back to Lipa’s 2024 hit “Houdini,” reinforcing just how central Parker has been to her Radical Optimism era.
Lipa entered mid-song with no formal introduction while Tame Impala were already deep into “After Thought.” She walked onstage and went straight into the chorus, treating the collaboration less like a guest spot and more like a shared song they have already lived with for a while. Once it ended, Parker addressed the crowd and introduced his “good friend” before setting up the second half of the appearance.
“Let’s play a song that we made together!”
From there, the pair launched into “Houdini,” the funk-leaning single Parker produced for Lipa’s third studio album, Radical Optimism. It was a tidy reminder that the record was not simply shaped around Parker’s involvement, but in part defined by it. Several tracks on the album carry his production touch, and “Houdini” remains the cleanest bridge between Lipa’s pop instincts and Parker’s psych-pop sensibility.
The London appearance also extends a running pattern between the two artists. At Glastonbury in 2024, Lipa brought Parker out during her headlining set for “Houdini” and Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know the Better,” a pairing that already suggested a working relationship unusually comfortable with crossing between their respective audiences. Then, during Lipa’s Radical Optimism tour in 2025, Parker showed up again, first in Melbourne and later at her Sydney date at Qudos Bank Arena.
Speaking to the crowd in Sydney, Lipa was explicit about how much the collaboration meant to her: “I made most of Radical Optimism with this person and he’s one of my favourite artists. He’s inspired me a lot. I manifested and dreamt about working with him one day and then I managed to make one of my favourite albums with him.” That line landed less like a scripted tour anecdote than a real acknowledgment of how much Parker’s presence has mattered to this phase of her career.
The two began working together in mid-2022, and Lipa has said she “was so nervous because I’m just such a fan of Kevin’s” when they first started collaborating. The results have been hard to miss. “Houdini” peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024 and served as the lead single for Radical Optimism, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and later earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album.
For Parker, the surprise appearance arrives while Tame Impala are in the middle of a world tour behind The Slow Rush (Collector’s Edition), their 2023 album release. For Lipa, it keeps extending the public life of Radical Optimism through the kind of cross-stage chemistry that now feels less like a novelty than a recurring part of the story.
