Charli XCX On Defining ‘Brat’: ‘Lying Is So Fun’

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | August 26, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | August 26, 2024 |

Being an unreliable narrator is so Brat. Charli XCX, leader of the movement, thinks so.

“Lying is so fun, so brat,” she recently told Vulture, when asked to define the title of her latest album that has become a cultural phenomenon. “Who made this rule that you have to be truthful and honest in the press as an artist? The press is just a tool.”

A tool she knows how to use. “I’m not assuming I’ll win a Grammy. I need that to be in print,” she said, before asking her interviewer, “Do you think I will win a Grammy?” And then, “Do you think I should be nominated for a Grammy?” Thus managing to assign herself and her album Grammy buzz without having to say it herself.

But, remember, lying is fun. Brat, more than anything, is playing with celebrity and success; it’s a tongue-in-cheek journal entry from the coolest girl you know, and by the time you’ve picked up on the sincerity, she’s singing about underwear again. Charli didn’t make Brat with the hopes of winning a Grammy (or did she?)—that’s what her 2022 album, Crash was for. Until this summer, it was her most successful album, but she refers to it as her “sellout” album.

“Do I want to be singing ‘Good Ones’ forever?” She says now, “Personally, no … Those songs don’t get me off as much.” When it didn’t get nominated she posted on Instagram, “Me not being nominated for a grammy for crash is like mia goth not being nominated for an oscar for pearl and only further proves that people don’t wanna see hot evil girls thrive.” Insert winky emoji and devil emoji here.

That hot evil girl persona has led to, she admits, a “tricky” relationship with her label, Atlantic. “I’ve always been … interpreted as difficult,” she explains. “I have a high standard, and I don’t think they’re right always. And I’m not willing to do something just because they think it’s right. They don’t know what’s best for me and my career, you know? I don’t suffer bullshitters, you know? There are a lot of bullshitters in the music industry. There really, really are.”

That feeling of being labeled “difficult” and yet standing by one’s standards has been a common refrain of female creatives *ahem* since time immemorial. In other words, it’s so Brat, and if you have to ask what Brat is, you’ll never know.