In the year of the musical feud, an almost-diss track is rare. But that’s exactly what Charli XCX did on her new album Brat, out June 7, and doubly when she worked it out on the remix. On “Girl, so confusing,” Charli sings about someone she doesn’t completely dislike and definitely doesn’t want to destroy, but certainly has complex feelings about. Because we, as pop fans, are genetically predisposed to nosiness, guesses galore proliferated about whom the song was about upon its release. Charli let that all play out, then delivered an answer via a new verse from the opposition. Who is the girl that is oh so confusing? Let’s rewind and talk talk about the girl, the post, and, oh yeah, the remix.
What are the original lyrics and allegations?
Before we get too deep into any Lorde lore, we should begin with the song itself. What we know about this person:
People say we’re alike
They say we’ve got the same hair
So it has to be someone that Charli at least looks like. Who fits that bill best? Well, it’s Lorde. Both pop girlies have long, wavy brown locks (when Charli isn’t bobbing), so it’s definitely a match. As for the personality of this person, Charli says:
You’re all about writing poems
But I’m about throwing parties
Think you should come to my party
And put your hands up
Well, first of all, if it is about her, Lorde does have a very famous song in which she sings, “I’m kind of over gettin’ told to throw my hands up in the air,” so telling her she should put her hands up is probably not the best strategy for compromise. As far as poetry, Lorde is a writer in the dark. Plus the two have definitely interacted before (Charli famously has a song on the Lorde-curated Mockingjay Part 1 soundtrack) and have definitely been compared to and mistaken for each other before (see here and here). But is that enough to assume Charli would write a song about her?
What has Charli said about the song?
“I haven’t quite decided whether I’m revealing,” Charli explained on Las Culturistas. “When I wrote it, I was like, ‘I’m revealing!’ But now, you know, the time is here; I’m like, ‘Mmm.’” We won’t hold it against you, Charlotte — it’s fun to speculate. “People are gonna guess,” she added. “You probably have an accurate guess, and I’m not gonna say out loud ’cause you’ll tell by my face, but it’s probably going to be that person.” Good lord!
As for the song itself, Charli defends her right to not be a girls’ girl for every girl. “I think we live in the world of pop music right now where women are like, ‘I support other women! I love women! I’m a feminist,’” she told Las Cultch. “And that’s great. Love that. I don’t think you become a bad feminist if you maybe don’t see eye to eye with every single woman. That’s not the nature of human beings. There’s a competitiveness between us. There’s envy. There’s camaraderie. There’s all of these different dynamics.”
How does Charli feel about Lorde?
It’s not like Charli is quiet about her envy. She’s seeing Brat green. “When ‘Royals’ came out, I was super jealous of the success that that song got, and that Ella got,” Charli told Rolling Stone UK in May. “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 once wore black lipstick.’ You create these parallels and think, ‘Well, that could have been me.’ But it couldn’t have because we’re completely different people.” So Lorde’s been on the mind for sure — even if “Royals” did come out in 2013.
Did Lorde respond immediately?
Actually … yes! The famously reclusive pop star actually did come to one of Charli’s parties (but no confirmation if she put her hands up). On June 11, Lorde went to Charli’s show at the Brooklyn Paramount, and it was captured on social media. The next morning, she posted a pic on her story captioned “a brat.” Glad she accepted the offer.
But wouldn’t you want to attend a concert for your fave album? “The only album i’ve ever presaved is out today,” Lorde wrote in an Instagram Story on June 6, the day before Brat came out. “Charli just cooked this one different … So much grit, grace & skin in the game. I speak for all of us when I say it’s an honour to be moved, changed and gagged by her work. there is NO ONE like this bitch. Brava and welcome Brat.” Seeing as “Girl, so confusing” is concerned with Charli’s interiority, not with making fun of the subject, it makes sense that the poppelgängers would want to clear the air.
And what about the remix?
After the dust settled and it was clear that “Girl, so confusing” was about Lorde, the two curly-haired icons decided to give us a reward for all our successful detective work: a remix. On June 20, Charli posted that Lorde would be featured on the remix for the song. At midnight, she put out the full song, which features Lorde delivering a verse that fits directly into the world of Brat — shockingly honest about how her confident posturing conceals deep-seated insecurities. “You’d always say, ‘Let’s go out’ / But then I’d cancel last-minute,” Lorde sings on the track. “I 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.” It sheds a whole new light on the Solar Power era.
In an Instagram post after the song dropped, Charli posted a screenshot of the moment Lorde texted her the verse. “Fucking hell,” she replied. Feeling that.
This post has been updated.
