It is now technically in its own future (i.e. a year on from its release) and we are being asked to be nostalgic about it, so the title of Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album has taken on a whole new resonance. Maybe. 

“Doing a little treasure hunt for Future Nostalgia’s BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!” wrote Dua Lipa on her social media accounts on 22nd March amid a flurry of heart emojis. “all kinds of sweet treats from me 2 you!!!”

Fans were directed to a sign-up page on her official site to be kept up to date with each part of the rolling treasure hunt and details of the prizes that could be won here. 

Each day for the week fans were sent clues via email at 5pm GMT in order to guess a word that, when all were revealed and were put in sequence, would make up a full URL that would then direct them to the prizes. 

She opened by hiding a clue in the description under her ‘We’re Good’ video on YouTube. “Notice anything unusual?” the email asked. 

By day four she was asking fans to check out the Spotify Canvas videos for the Future Nostalgia album, meaning they’d theoretically have to play all the tracks while combing each Canvas for clues (ideally for more than 30 seconds per track so they all registered as plays). 

Clues included “sugaboo”, a word used in her track ‘Levitating’, as well as (inevitably) “anniversary”. Prizes included a code to access her Studio 2054 livestream from late 2020 that was sold originally as a ticketed event. 

Winners were informed via email after the week-long run of clues, with many of them posting regular updates on their progress and even sharing the clues they had found with each other. 

While treasure hunts are nothing new, the way this one was structured made it more interesting – namely tying it to an anniversary, stretching it across a week and (most of all) hiding the clues on different platforms where fans would have to play the tracks in order to start to crack the code.