Lorde Explains How Charli xcx’s ‘Brat’ ‘Forced’ Her to Step Up Her Game on ‘Virgin’
Written by djfrosty on May 1, 2025
After working it out on the remix with Charli xcx, Lorde knew she had to work even harder on her own album to match the level of creative ingenuity her collaborator demonstrated on Brat.
In an interview with BBC Radio 1 posted shortly after the New Zealand native finally announced her fourth studio album, Virgin, on Wednesday (April 30), Lorde explained how the British pop star’s critically acclaimed 2024 project — for which the two teamed up on a remix of “Girl, So Confusing” — lit a fire under her when it came to finishing up her own LP. “Brat coming out really gave me a kick in a lot of ways,” Lorde began.
“It forced me to further define what I was doing, because Charli had so masterfully defined everything about Brat, and I knew that what I was doing was very distinct to that,” she continued, speaking to radio host Jack Saunders. “It’s an amazing thing when a peer throws the gauntlet down like that, you’re like, ‘OK, I’ve got to pick it up.’ I’ve spoken to a lot of peers who’ve all had the same feeling.”
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Released June 7, 2024, Brat was the album that finally propelled Charli into the mainstream. After the project debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 — her highest position on the chart to date — the Essex-born artist kept the momentum going by dropping a companion remix album in October, featuring Lorde’s version of “Girl, So Confusing,” which the pair recently performed together during Charli’s Coachella set in April.
On the remix, the two artists candidly address a rift between them while making peace with their differences, a level of honesty that reaffirmed to the “Royals” singer how rewarding her own vulnerability on Virgin could be. “I had been trying to express in this very naked way, and then Brat came out, and she was kind of doing that from the other side of the coin,” Lorde told BBC Radio 1.
“Doing the remix together and meeting her in that place of rugged vulnerability and kind of cracking open the thing …,” she added. “[When] people responded really well to that, I was like, ‘OK, cool, this is a good thing to be doing.’”
The interview comes as fans are still processing the news about Virgin, which Lorde announced would be arriving June 27 while sharing its thought-provoking cover art on Wednesday. The project was preceded by lead single “What Was That,” which dropped April 24 alongside a music video filmed in New York City, featuring footage from the Kiwi star’s pop-up in Washington Square Park two days prior.
“THE COLOUR OF THE ALBUM IS CLEAR,” Lorde described Virgin in a statement at the time of the announcement. “LIKE BATHWATER, WINDOWS, ICE, SPIT. FULL TRANSPARENCY. THE LANGUAGE IS PLAIN AND UNSENTIMENTAL. THE SOUNDS ARE THE SAME WHEREVER POSSIBLE. I WAS TRYING TO SEE MYSELF, ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A DOCUMENT THAT REFLECTED MY FEMININITY: RAW, PRIMAL, INNOCENT, ELEGANT, OPENHEARTED, SPIRITUAL, MASC.”
Watch Lorde open up about feeling inspired by Charli below.