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DuaLingo is the het ship between Duo and Dua Lipa from the Duolingo fandom.
Canon[]
The official Duolingo social media accounts had posted videos about Duo expressing his love for the singer, starting sometime in 2021. Many of these make use of then-current trends and memes, often involving Duo showing or looking up pictures of Dua Lipa with fitting music playing in the background. The ship name was coined in a TikTok with the caption “when people keep calling me DuaLingo …but Dua Lipa will never acknowledge my existence”, involving Duo running towards the camera happily before falling on his face. Duo seeming miserable without Dua Lipa is also a recurring theme in those TikToks.
This eventually led to Duo celebrating that Dua Lipa is “finally single” and he actually tries to practice pick up lines to ask her out. In another TikTok, the first of a trilogy, Duo is shown preparing cards before shipping himself to New York to attend Dua Lipa’s concert. The next TikTok reveals that he was actually trying to propose to her with a wedding ring balloon, with the cards having him tell her that he considers her wearing a bright green jumpsuit to be “100% a sign” that she reciprocates his feelings. However, the last TikTok in this trilogy shows Duo twerking to “Gasolina” with the caption “when you fly all the way to NYC to be rejected by Dua Lipa once again”. That didn’t stop Duo from holding onto hope and his obsession with Dua Lipa had long since been established as a running gag for the brand.
However, against Duo’s judgement, Dua Lipa had said in a podcast that she was actually very amused by his antics and even considers collaborating with the brand. The two were finally spotted in what appears to be a date in Paris. However, when news of Duo’s death via being hit by a Cybertruck were announced, the Duolingo accounts were already thanking their followers for respecting Dua Lipa’s privacy during such a difficult time. Dua Lipa actually reacted to the announcement by retweeting it with the caption “Til Death Duo Us Part”. Bizarrely, when Duo reveals that he was actually faking his death the whole time, he claims that he “finally got Dua Lipa to notice him” while showing her retweet, even though they had interacted quite a few times up to that point.
Songs[]
- Le Duo et La Dua
- A song dedicated to Dua Lipa as part of “Duolingo on Ice”. In the song, Duo proclaims that it was fate that led him to Dua while circling a cardboard cutout of her.
Fanon[]
The “romance” between Duo and Dua Lipa has been very well-received by fans, as it gave Duo more identifiable traits to latch onto. Fans of Dua Lipa also appreciated the cross-promotion as it gave more attention towards their favorite artist. When it comes to shipping, many are content with it staying a one-sided crush on Duo’s side, as the idea of shipping a cartoon owl with a real person is a bit too weird for most people. Fics that feature them as a pairing often merely acknowledge that Duo had a thing for/with Dua Lipa at some point in the past before the author chooses to move on to their preferred pairing. On AO3, it is currently Duo’s third-most popular romantic pairing and Dua Lipa’s second-most popular pairing.
The Dua Lipa storyline on Duolingo’s socials had also received official acknowledgement from some marketing analysts, suggesting that this won’t be the last time a brand account would try something like this.
Fandom[]
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| Duolingo Ships • Duolingo Characters | ||
| SHIPS | het | DuaLingo |
| slash | DuoDaddy • Hootlingo • Redlingo | |
| femslash | Zarily | |
| cargo | Duogle Translate | |
| CHARACTERS | male | Duo |