Dua Lipa's 'Sanitised' Documentary On Camden's Music Scene Hasn't Quite Hit The Right Note
In her new Disney+ documentary, Camden, Dua Lipa pays tribute to the London district that she describes as the “beating heart of music”.
The chart-topping singer served as executive producer of the four-part docuseries, which dives into the history of a world-famous music scene, looking at how it shaped the life and careers of countless iconic musicians.
Directed by Asif Kapadia (Amy), the series features archival footage and celebrity interviewees like Coldplay’s Chris Martin, The Libertines and Yungblud,
The musicians “relive their Camden experiences; from their very first gigs to sell-out concerts, the highs and lows of nights out and a youth spent discovering music,” according to a description.
But despite the big names attached to it, the series hasn’t gone down too well with critics, after many criticised its historical blindspots and “style over substance” approach.
Here’s what the reviews are saying so far…
The Guardian (2/5)
“Less informative than a five-minute Google… Strap in for three hours of annoyingly vague celeb analyses of the London musical hotspot’s cultural significance – featuring no punks and almost no history. It’s downright cringeworthy.”
The Independent
“Lipa, one of the series’ executive producers, spent several years living here as a child and recorded her first YouTube songs in a Camden flat aged 15, but – such is the major pop star mindset – she seems far more concerned with lauding the biggest names that lived and played here than getting under the gritty fingernails of the place.”
i (2/5)
“Disney+’s documentary is smug and sanitised… A documentary about one of London’s most raucous musical boroughs should be more frank and unvarnished than this Dua Lipa-produced docuseries.”
NME (3/5)
“Dua Lipa’s documentary is a love letter to endangered independent venues…Trying to condense the history of the postcode into four (roughly) hour-long episodes means that Camden is entertaining, but occasionally scattershot and lacking focus.”
Evening Standard (4/5)
“The series has a tendency to veer into a hagiography of Camden and misses out on hitting truly classic documentary territory. That said, it is a very entertaining ride through the living memory of the area.”
This Is Local London (4/5)
“You can’t help but want to hit the town after hearing the loud music and seeing all these celebrities gleefully talk about their crazy nights and all the callbacks to their time at The Jazz Café… It did at times feel like the episodes went on a bit too long, but never to the point that it overstayed its welcome.”
Decider
“Don’t get us wrong; we’re fans of [Dua Lipa’s], and we do get that she’s an executive producer of the show. But she’s 28 years old, and her career didn’t really start until around 2010. As much as she knows about the history of the venues and the acts that played there, her personal interaction with the music scene there likely only reaches back to her early 2000s childhood, if we’re being generous. There is more than 20 years of history that came before that, and she has no personal perspective on it.
Camden is available to watch on Disney+ now.
