The Internet Is Emotional Over Charli XCX and Lorde “Working It Out on the Remix”

It’s really Charli XCX’s summer, and we’re all just living in it. As if you hadn’t already heard enough about brat from every gay person ever, the singer just dropped “The girl, so confusing version with lorde,” which is exactly what it sounds like.

Pretty much as soon as Charli released brat on June 7, the internet began dissecting who and what each track was about, especially the song at the album's midpoint, “Girl, so confusing.” With lyrics like, “People say we're alike / They say we've got the same hair / We talk about making music /But I don't know if it's honest,” sleuths quickly drew the conclusion that the song was likely about Charli’s insecurities about her relationship with Lorde. The two are indeed rocking similar wavy brunette looks right now, which was the most direct giveaway. They’re also both known for being two of the most transgressive pop artists of the 2010s and therefore beloved by gay people.

But as “Girl, so confusing” shows, their relationship also seems to have been more complicated under the surface. As Entertainment Weekly reported, it goes all the way back to an interview from nearly 10 years ago, when Charli was asked about her inspiration for “Royals” (a song that is famously by Lorde, not Charli). EW also noted that in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year, Charli said she was “super jealous” of the Lorde’s success with “Royals”.

Fast forward to Thursday when Charli started teasing the collaboration on the famed “brat wall” in Brooklyn, where Lorde’s name appeared in those signature sans-serif lowercase letters. Then, at midnight, the remix dropped.

As vulnerable as the original song is, Lorde’s verse on the remix matches, if not exceeds, that level of emotional honesty. She opens with “Well, honestly, I was speechless / When I woke up to your voice note,” then proceeds to explain that she “was so lost in my head / and scared to be in your pictures / ‘Cause for the last couple years / I’ve been at war with my body.”

“I was trapped in the hatred / And your life seemed so awesome,” Lorde signs. “I never thought for a second / My voice was in your head.”

Charli summed it all up with her reaction to Lorde’s verse, which she posted online: “Fucking hell.”

Naturally, gay Twitter (or X, sorry) immediately exploded upon the release of this joint slay. One user threw it back to 10 years ago with a series of extremely Tumblr 2014core images.

Another user pointed to the fact that even though Charli and Lorde are obviously pop icons, the remix speaks to a pretty universally felt experience: that oftentimes, perceived conflicts in friendships come from insecurities we feel about ourselves.

More than one person did the obvious thing and drew parallels to the other media phenomenon of 2024: Challengers. I mean, a vaguely homoerotic frenemyship that ends with the two bridging the divide between each other? We absolutely see the similarities.

Lastly, X user “feminiomenon” summed it all up with this iconic clip from the Sex and the City finale.

Perhaps one of the most transgressive things about Charli’s pop artistry is her commitment to collaboration, rather than the catty antics that we tend to associate with pop divas. That came to a head with “Girl, so confusing,” which could have remained a straightforward diss track, but instead the two decided to “work it out on the remix,” in Lorde’s words. It might be so confusing to be a girl sometimes, but thank God Charli’s showing that you can be a successful, iconic pop girl without tearing other women down.

Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them’s weekly newsletter here.