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The Briefing

Dua Lipa's got a pen and she's not afraid to use it

Apart from the fact that Swan Song sounds about eight different types of brilliant, one of the best things about the world's shortest music doc­u­ment­ary, above, which shows Dua Lipa recording her new single, is the bit where she suggests changing "diamonds, diamonds, breaking down" either to or from "diamonds, breaking, breaking down".

Clearly Dua's song­writ­ing could be all over this song so let's not rush to judgement here but this feels like the nearest we as pop consumers might ever get to actual real-life footage of the "change a word, get a third" principle in action.

The whole idea of "change a word, get a third" sometimes feels a little dis­missive. Even if just one word is changed, words have meaning! Words have power! The right word in the right place can increase a song's general amaz­ing­ness by 12–19%.

As for whether "diamonds, diamonds, breaking down" is better or worse than "diamonds, breaking, breaking down", it's too early to say, but Swan Song's out in three weeks so the truth will out in due course.

In the meantime…

What's the best lyric?

Give you give you more give you more give you give you more