"We thought we’d go really big from the very beginning": Dua Lipa covers AC/DC as she kicks off her Radical Optimism tour in Australia

Here’s something that wasn’t on our bingo card for 2025: Dua Lipa has covered AC/DC’s Highway To Hell at a gig in Melbourne. And she's done a decent job of it, by all accounts.

The British singer belted out the song about halfway through her set at the Rod Laver Stadium on Monday night. Introducing it, she said: “I thought why not do a new song every night from a local artist from every place we’re in? Obviously Australia has an abundance of amazing musicians, so we thought we’d go really big from the very beginning. If you know it, sing it.”

Sometimes when an out and out pop star pulls a move like this, it can end up looking a little bit, well... cringe. To Dua Lipa’s credit, in a sparkly body suit and wielding a fur boa like a weapon, she looks every inch the seasoned rocker. The band look like they’re having fun, too.

The Melbourne date was the first of her 2025 Radical Optimism World Tour. After Australia and New Zealand, she’ll turn her attention to Europe and a run of shows that culminates in two Wembley dates on 20 and 21 June. After that there’s an extensive North American tour in September and October.

And AC/DC themselves have just announced a string of North American stadium shows in April and May - their first over there since 2016.