Charli XCX
Henry Redcliffe
Pop stardom is a game Charli XCX knows exactly how to play. Having been signed to a major label since she was a rule-breaking teenager on the London underground scene, the 32-year-old has spent the past decade manifesting – and preparing for – the transition from a rocky state of career perpetuity to genuine, mercurial global success. She’s been everything from a liberated, independent vanguard (2018 critically-adored mixtape Pop 2) to a cult starlet tirelessly chasing the bright lights of the mainstream (2022’s Crash), though it would take until this year for her to finally grasp a bonafide crossover moment.
Charli’s world changed entirely with the release of June’s career-elevating LP Brat, which has gone on to rack up seven Grammy nominations and become something of a zeitgeist-shifting moment. A riveting, assured and structurally adventurous record filled with moments of pure dance-pop transcendence, it saw Charli finding her own conviction, with smart, searingly self-aware lyrics and production that confounded expected song formulas. Over the summer, its neon album art permeated online culture like nothing else we’ve seen this year.
The archetypal brat, as Charli explained on TikTok, is “just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes, who feels herself, but then also maybe has a breakdown, but kind of parties through it.” Her fans live in thrall to this mission statement, to the hedonism she conjures in her music as well as the intimacies that she shares with them on social media. At the start of the Brat campaign, Charli added some of her ‘Angels’ to a private Instagram account where she shared clips from the studio – for her most devout supporters, the album has been akin to an immersive experience from day dot.
All of this momentum has laid the groundwork for Charli’s first-ever U.K. headline tour, which kicked off at the country’s largest indoor arena last night (Nov. 27), Manchester’s 23,500-capacity Co-op Live. Off the back of her hugely successful Sweat tour with Troye Sivan across North America – plus a recent guerilla performance in Times Square and her debut hosting at SNL – Charli’s pop career has rocketed to even greater heights, a stature she is set to build on with the rest of her current tour leg. Here are the best moments from the night.
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Hit ‘Em With Your Catwalk
Grey and grotty winter weather did nothing to stop Charli’s Angels from showing up in their finery. Neon corsets, latex-clad two-pieces, fishnets, homemade Brat baby tees: for the thousands of ticket-holders descending on Co-op Live, the ‘fit was as important as shuffling to the front to get a good spot in the crowd. The venue became their own rarefied runway.
The streets of Manchester were painted green as some fans took inspiration from the Brat album cover, while others riffed on Charli’s close, career-long affinity with drag culture, donning everything from stomper boots to bedazzled catsuits and sky-high wigs. Clearly, they all knew how to turn a look.
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An Ode to SOPHIE
The passing of SOPHIE – who died in 2021, after falling from the rooftop of a building in Greece while trying to take a photo of the moon – was seismic for pop fans, particularly Charli. She worked with the pioneering hyperpop producer on a slew of projects including tracks from 2017’s retro-futurist Number 1 Angel mixtape and the Vroom Vroom EP, released the year prior. The dizzying, expressive songs of the latter arguably changed the course of Charli’s career, showing a whole new depth to her artistry and becoming a cult hit among her predominantly queer audience.
Before Charli took to the stage at Co-op Live, SOPHIE’s eternal banger “Immaterial” blasted through the PA, amping up the raucous atmosphere in the room. Later on, she aired the stirring “So I”, an ode to her late friend and collaborator. Charli played the track straight and simple, relying on just her impassioned vocals as she belted beneath a pale, single spotlight.
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Everything Is Romantic
After the high-energy ingenuity of Pop 2 highlight “Unlock It” – replete with an arena-wide take on Kim Petras’ signature “Woo-Ah!” ad-lib – Charli caught her breath by explaining the significance of “Talk Talk.” The track was inspired by the early days she spent getting to know her now-fiancé George Daniel, producer and drummer with The 1975.
“Can you believe that the love of my life George Daniel is here?” she exclaimed, pointing towards a private box in the upper section of the arena. Visibly moved by the uproarious audience response at the mere mention of her partner, Charli continued to shout out George throughout the evening, laughing giddily each and every time she said his name.
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The Apple Dance, Dialled up to Epic Proportions
“Oh shit, it’s tiiiimmmeee,” shouted Charli as the bright, bubbling arrangement of “Apple” began to unravel. The track became an internet sensation earlier this year after actor and content creator Kelley Heyer posted a TikTok dance to what she described at the time as an “under appreciated” moment on Brat – and it has since become one of the album’s most-streamed songs.
As Charli bobbed around on stage, nonchalantly smoking a cigarette beneath an oversized coat, the arena launched into formation. Video screens showed fans’ different interpretations of the routine, though thankfully, there were no spotlight-stealing moments to be seen – unlike a recent, meme-ified moment from the Los Angeles Sweat show.
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Cher-li XCX
The out-and-out aura of Brat afforded Charli to use AutoTune to filter and manipulate her vocals to suit each song. On stage, she applied the same effect to retooled versions of earlier material like “Party 4 U” and “Track 10,” upping her pitch to match the intensity of the show’s expansive light displays. Throughout the latter, she was variously angry, seductive, and empowered – an actor having her true pop diva moment in the vein of Cher.
The theatrics continued towards the end of “Track 10,” as Charli moved to the front of the stage and finished the song beneath a towering water display. A luminous flash of baggy pristine-white clothing and bejeweled underwear, she gave it her all.
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Let’s Ride
When Charli first unveiled the formidable title track of the “Vroom Vroom” EP, few imagined that one day it would be lighting up mega-domes on both sides of the Atlantic in the same way it has been a LGBTQ+ nightlife staple for years. Where she once performed the track in tiny nightclubs, crouching low to the floor as though she was hiding in a bunker, last night, “Vroom Vroom” finally got the arena treatment it has always deserved.
From that opening, adrenaline-pumping call of “Let’s ride” to the sheer melodic force of the song’s rapid verses, Charli performed “Vroom Vroom” with enough magnetism to bring Co-op Live’s air vent down once more.
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Tenderness And Thrills
Though much of Charli’s set focused on shock-value stage antics – from debuting a Sanrio-inspired miniskirt to spitting on and licking the stage on all-fours – there were a few moments of reflection that added some needed emotional heft to the night.
Support act Shygirl also made a cameo for a playful, empowering rendition of the pair’s “365” remix, while Charli later spoke about a formative show she played to “10 people” at Manchester’s Deaf Institute venue back in 2013. “Thank you for standing by me and always believing in me,” she concluded, her smile growing wider by the second.