Ahead of releasing her new album Radical Optimism, Dua Lipa just dropped a single called “Illusion.” It’s an undeniable bop — but its lyrics and music video have fans thinking it might also be a dig at another pop star.

In the song, Lipa sings about not falling for a lover’s lies and seeing through their “illusion.” At the end of the first verse, she sings, “In the end, those things just don’t last / And it’s time I take my rose-colored glasses off.” Ring any bells yet?

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If not, one shot from the music video makes the alleged reference crystal clear. After swimming alongside a ton of speedo-clad hunks, Lipa is lifted from a pool by a suspended ring. She poses high in the air with one leg bent in front of the other — the exact same pose Miley Cyrus famously did on the cover of her last album Endless Summer Vacation.

Dua Lipa in the music video for “Illusion. Via YouTube.
Miley Cyrus on the album cover of “Endless Summer Vacation.”

That album also features a track titled “Rose Colored Lenses.” Did Lipa and Cyrus just happen to go for the same metaphor and visuals, or is there a deeper meaning to the similarities? Could Cyrus be the lying lover that Lipa is singing about?

Lipa and Cyrus have collaborated before, releasing the duet “Prisoner” on Cyrus’ 2020 album Plastic Hearts. The music video saw the two licking and grabbing each other’s bodies, fueling speculation about their relationship.

At the time, Cyrus confirmed that the two had never hooked up.

“We did not have sex,” she said on the Howard Stern show. “Dua Lipa constantly reminds me. She gives me the ‘in your dreams.’ I’ve never actually had a wet dream about Dua Lipa. That’s something that she’s projecting onto me. I did not get to have sex with her unfortunately.”

“I kind of want to f*ck her, like, 5%,” she continued. “The more and more I’m thinking about it, I kind of do.”

So, what gives with the apparent references to Cyrus? The rose-colored glasses metaphor could be just that: a common metaphor that both randomly chose to use. And as far as hanging in the air, fans think both may be referencing another gay icon: Madonna, who did a similar pose in her infamous coffee table book Sex in 1992.

Radical Optimism releases on May 3. Check out the music video for “Illusion” below.

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