Dua Lipa’s “Boys Will Be Boys” Lyrics Meaning

According to Dua Lipa’s own words, her song “Boys Will Be Boys” deals with the “growing pains” or challenges “of what it’s like to be a woman” in this world.

Speaking to Australia’s Vogue, she shed some light on the above statement. She couldn’t stand it that so much of women’s lives are controlled by men.

She went on to talk about how girls and women are forced to cover themselves to be safe from being sexually harassed by men. In concluding her statement, she expressed great sadness on how women have to sacrifice their comfort just so they can fit into the lifestyle of men.

Meaning of “Boys Will Be Boys”

The aforementioned phrase is actually an idiomatic expression. It is used to say that one shouldn’t be shocked or surprised when one sees boys or men behave in a rough or unacceptable way. And why? This is because behaving in such way is how nature programmed males to be.

That being said, it should be noted that many feminists have a problem with this idiom. According to them, it encourages boys and men to behave in unacceptable ways much to the detriment of girls and women. So essentially a male behaves improperly and society isn’t too hard on him because “boys will be boys”.

And this is exactly what Dua Lipa (who is also a staunch feminist) is talking about in the song’s chorus below.

Lipa clearly has a problem with said idiomatic expression that encourages males to misbehave. She therefore uses this song to bring attention to it while mocking it or dissing it, so to speak.

How Dua Lipa disses/criticizes the Expression

There are a number of likely ways that Lipa is using the song’s chorus to diss or criticize the misogynist expression. They include:

• Males will forever be immature. However, girls will transition from being girls (immaturity) to women (maturity). This is clearly Lipa dissing men. Actually a number of males say they find it insulting.
• Young boys get to enjoy their childhood for a long time. This however, isn’t the same for young girls. And this is because they tend to go through a lot of challenges and torments in life that leave them with no other option than to grow up quickly and become women. A good example is where young girls are forced into early marriages.

Autobiographical Lyrics

A number of lines from this song are actually inspired by events Lipa went through growing up. For example, in the first verse she talks about putting keys in her knuckles when boys are around. Now, this is something Lipa actually did as a young girl to protect herself from boys.

Below are Lipa’s exact words in relation to that:

Song’s Objectives

Lipa revealed that her primary objective for this song is that it “be a conversation starter” and an “eye opener”. She also hopes to use this song to show solidarity with young girls and tell them that she has also been through their challenges too. She stressed that while making the song, her intentions weren’t to offend anyone.

Writing Credits

Dua Lipa received help from the following writers in writing this song:

• Jason Evigan
• Justin Tranter
• Kennedi

Release Date

It was released on March 27th, 2020 as part of Dua’s “Future Nostalgia” album. This album, which is her second, produced the following singles:

• “Break My Heart“
• “Physical”
• “Don’t Start Now“