Lipa was born in London on 22 August 1995 to Albanian parents from Kosovo who had left Pristina in the 1990s.[4][5] She attended Sylvia Young Theatre School, part-time,[8] moving to Kosovo with her family in 2008.[2] Lipa grew up listening to her father, the Kosovar Albanian rock singer Dukagjin Lipa.[2][9] At the age of 14, she began posting covers of her favourite songs by artists such as Christina Aguilera and Nelly Furtado on YouTube.[10][11] At the age of 16, she moved back to London with aspirations of becoming a singer.[12] Shortly after, she began working as a model.[10]