Houdini Lyrics
Okay
Mm, ah
[Chorus]
I come and I go
Tell me all the ways you need me
I'm not here for long
Catch me or I go Houdini
I come and I go
Prove you got the right to please me
Everybody knows
Catch me or I go Houdini
[Verse 1]
Time is passin' like a solar eclipse
See you watchin' and you blow me a kiss
It's your moment, baby, don't let it slip
Come in closer, are you readin' my lips?
[Chorus]
They say I come and I go
Tell me all the ways you need me
I'm not here for long
Catch me or I go Houdini
I come and I go
Prove you got the right to please me
Everybody knows
Catch me or I go Houdini
If you're good enough, you'll find the way
Maybe you could cause a girl to change (Her ways)
Do you think about it night and day?
Maybe you could be the one to make me stay
[Verse 2]
Everything you say is soundin' so sweet (Ah-ah)
But do you practise everything that you preach? (Ah-ah)
I need something that'll make me believe (Ah-ah)
If you got it, baby, give it to me
[Chorus]
They say I come and I go
Tell me all the ways you need me
I'm not here for long
Catch me or I go Houdini
I come and I go (I come and I go)
Prove you got the right to please me
Everybody knows (I'm not here for long)
Catch me or I go Houdini
[Post-Chorus]
If you're good enough, you'll find the way
Maybe you could cause a girl to change (Her ways)
Do you think about it night and day?
Maybe you could be the one to make me stay
Oh-oh
Ooh
[Chorus]
I come and I go
Tell me all the ways you need me (Ooh)
I'm not here for long
Catch me or I go Houdini
I come and I go (I come and I go)
Prove you got the right to please me
Everybody knows (I'm not here for long)
Catch me or I go Houdini
[Outro]
Houdini (Ah)
Catch me or I go Houdini
About
“Houdini” is the first single from Dua Lipa’s third studio album Radical Optimism. The track kickstarted Dua’s new era and was first alluded to on 27 October 2023 — after deleting all of her Instagram posts, Dua posted a cryptic teaser on social media of her mouth holding a small golden key between her teeth, paired with the caption “catch me or I go…”
The post was deleted two days later and the singer shared a new video instead of it. It portrayed Dua with the key now inside of her mouth with the caption “I’m not here for long.” It provided the first glimpse at the song’s sound, with a snippet of the song playing in the background. On 31 October, the teaser was also deleted and yet another teaser video with a snippet was posted. The last frames of the video showed the numbers “4 8 9 9 14 15 21.” Soon enough, fans figured out the numbers converted to the alphabet letters “D H I I N O U,” which when rearranged spelled out the song’s title. This was later confirmed by the official Dua Lipa Fan Account, TeamDuaHQ.
The song’s release date marks the anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death, the famous illusionist noted for his escape acts. Another allusion to Houdini’s escape acts is the key seen in Dua’s mouth in all of the teasers, as the magician’s wife would frequently give him the key to his handcuffs through a kiss.
On 8 November, less than 48 hours before the single’s release, Dua went to BBC where she and Greg James chose one random passerby to be the track’s first listener. The following day, on the single’s release date, 300 lucky fans were invited to an early screening of the song’s music video alongside Dua herself, two hours before the world premiere.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
“Houdini” embodies the energy of a good night out. This was the first track I wrote about that fun and freeing time of being single. The lyrics are a bit cheeky, but there is a real underlying message of understanding yourself deeply and having no guilt about knowing your self-worth. Sometimes you just have to pull a Houdini and leave a situation that’s no longer serving you.
—via Apple Music
“Houdini” I think is definitely the vibe-iest track on the record in the sense that it just immediately gets you dancing, it transports you somewhere visually. I think it’s quite, like, an instant. I also feel like it’s quite a departure sonically so I really wanted that to be the main point of where I’m heading next. I think it also has all those psychedelic elements. It’s got the electronic moments, but also at the same time it’s got so much instrumentation and that live element in it. So it really felt like it encapsulated a lot of what’s to come even though everything that’s to come is also so different, but I feel like there’s a through line that connects them.
—via Rolling Stone UK
The reason why I chose to put out “Houdini” first is cause it’s the first song in, like, chronological order, in a series of songs about the most fun parts of singledom. And so, it just felt like I kept going into the studio with lots of ammo and lots of fun stories to write about. I think how you feel 24 hours after something has happened changes a lot, you know, two weeks later or a month later. When you listen to it and you’re like “actually that’s not really the way I wanna express myself,” so I wanna tweak it a little bit, or I wanna change this lyric or I wanna maybe work on that melody a little more.
—via Rolling Stone UK
- 2.Houdini
- 4.These Walls
- 6.French Exit
- 7.Illusion
- 10.Maria
- 11.Happy For You