It’s a good time to be brat. Two weeks after Charli XCX blessed us with her sixth studio album, she’s given us some much-needed new Lorde. On Thursday, the two singers teamed up on a remix of “Girl, so confusing,” that includes a vulnerable verse about Lorde’s struggles with body insecurity.
This collaboration is momentous: In the original version of “Girl, so confusing,” Charli XCX alludes to the internet and industry’s longstanding habit of pitting her against another female singer because of their purported similarities as artists, along with the insecurity she’s faced as a result of the comparison. Fans speculated she was talking about Lorde: Back in 2014, after an interviewer mixed up Charli XCX with Lorde, even saying “Royals” was her favorite Charli track, Charli played along with the joke and fans followed suit, jokingly calling her Lorde at shows and asking her to perform “Royals.” In a May interview with Rolling Stone, Charli spoke about her jealousy and frustration over the comparisons. “When ‘Royals’ came out, I was super jealous of the success that song got, and that Ella got,” she said. “You piece all this stuff together in your brain like: ‘She was into my music. She had big hair; I had big hair. She wore black lipstick, I wore black lipstick.’ You create these parallels and think, ‘Well that could have been me.’ But it couldn’t have been because we’re completely different people … I think you just read what you want into it because you’re feeling insecure about your own work.”
In her “Girl, so confusing,” verse, Lorde — who last released new music with her 2021 album Solar Power — shares her own insecurities, revealing she put up walls around her because she was dealing with body-image issues and felt “scared” to be in photos with Charli. “… For the last couple years, I’ve been at war with my body,” Lorde sings. “I tried to starve myself thinner / And then I gained all the weight back … I was trapped in the hatred / and your life seemed so awesome … Forgot that inside that icon / there’s still a young girl from Essex … I ride for you Charli.”
With that, the girl from Essex and the girl from Takapuna have put this fan-made beef to bed. Meanwhile, I’m still hung up on this 2017 tweet from Lorde, asking Charli and Carly Rae Jepsen to form a “hot girl band” with her one day. Girls, please?
