Charli Xcx
The culture-affecting Charli XCX has revealed her fondness for the culture-defining Velvet Underground, praising their 1967 debut at Variety’s Hitmakers Awards.
Appearing at the Awards on Saturday (Dec. 7), Charli XCX was on hand to receive the Hitmaker of the Year honor, predominantly thanks to the massive global success of her Brat album throughout 2024. However, in her own acceptance speech, Charli XCX explained that that the very definition of what is a “hit” is up for debate. To underline her point, she deferred to some remarks she had written about The Velvet Underground‘s iconic debut album.
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“In March 1967, The Velvet Underground released their album The Velvet Underground & Nico,” she began. “It debuted on the Billboard 200 at Number 199. And a few weeks later, it rose to its peak position of 195. But don’t worry, it dropped out, but then it re-entered the charts. And later in life, Lou Reed told Brian Eno that it had only sold around 30,000 copies over its first five years.”
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“In my humble opinion, this record is the definition of a hit. This record is arguably one of the most influential and groundbreaking records of our time,” she added. “This album is the apex of fine art and DIY culture colliding. It’s high and low, it’s poetry meets drugs, it’s earnest meets arrogance, and even if you’re never heard a single song from this album, you’ll undoubtedly recognize its cover, either from the walls of a modern art gallery or from the shop floor of an Urban Outfitters.”
“And let’s be real, what is a hit if you’re not conquering both of those places?” she asked. “My album cover has not yet appeared at the Guggenheim or the Whitney or the Tate. However, some of my merch is available to purchase right now in Urban Outfitters. So I guess that means that I’m halfway there.”
While Charli XCX is correct that The Velvet Underground & Nico peaked at No. 195 upon its initial release, it re-entered the charts later in 1967, ultimately peaking at No. 171. In 2013, the record would reach its highest peak to date with No. 129.
Likewise, the famous quote about the record only selling 30,000 copies in its first five years has been up for debate as well. Eno’s full quote adds that despite the sales figure, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band”. However, later investigations have seen more than 58,000 copies had been sold by February 1969, with as many as 200,000 copies being sold by 1971. For comparison, in June, Charli XCX’s Brat debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with a total of 40,000 album sales.
Charli XCX is making sure her homecoming tour is kicking off in a big way. The English musician launched the U.K. leg of her global Brat tour on Wednesday (Nov. 27) with a headline performance in Manchester, which expectedly leaned heavily on her culture-defining sixth album. Nearing the halfway point of her set on Wednesday, […]
English singer Charli XCX is getting ready to appear on Saturday Night Live once again this weekend, with the latest promo clip from the episode showing off her comedic touch.
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The episode, which airs on Nov. 16, will be Charli’s third appearance, having served as musical guest during the Martin Freeman-hosted show in 2014 and Oscar Isaac’s episode in 2022. This time, however, will be the singer’s first pulling double duty as both host and musical guest.
As a result, she’s been showing off her more comedic side in the promo clips released ahead of the show, teaming up with SNL cast member Marcello Hernández for the latest series.
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“Charli, I have a personal question to ask you,” Hernández queries the musician. “What’s your real name?”
“I never tell anyone this but it’s Charleston Ten One Hundred Ten,” responds Charli, whose real name is actually Charlotte Aitchison. “Wow, that’s amazing,” Hernández adds to a muted response. “I have a bit of a secret myself; my real name is Marcellonian Hernandingleheimer.”
Other brief appearances with Hernández include Charli promising the cast member that “the nation” will decide if his outfit is “brat” or “brong”, and noting that she’ll keep her final promo short, before offering a sly nod in Hernández’ direction.
Another clip released on Wednesday (Nov. 13) pokes fun at the ubiquitous ‘Brat summer’ phenomenon, that accompanied her culture-dominating album that dropped back in June.
The clips shows Charli seen going over her lines before SNL cast member Chloe Fineman joins her to express excitement over her joining the show. “Brat,” Charli responds, and continues to respond with the same one-word phrase for Fineman’s series of conversation starters, including asking how she’s feeling, inquiring about a rash and more.
Watch Charli XCX in the latest SNL promo below. Catch the full episode of Saturday Night Live on Nov. 16 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC, before it streams on Peacock.
Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and Charli XCX’s Brat reach new highs on Billboard’s Top Streaming Albums chart (dated Aug. 17) as the sets climb 4-3 and 10-5, respectively. Both titles also post new one-week highs in streaming-equivalent album units earned, as well their biggest streaming weeks.
Meanwhile, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time logs an eighth non-consecutive week atop the tally, and Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 2 flies in at No. 6 as the only debut in the top 10.
The 50-position Top Streaming Albums chart ranks the most-streamed albums of the week in the U.S., as compiled by Luminate. Titles are ranked by streaming equivalent album (SEA) units, where each SEA unit equals 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. If an artist has multiple albums containing the same song, SEA units for that song are generally assigned to whichever album sells the most by traditional album sales in a given week.
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One Thing at a Time holds at No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums with 60,500 SEA units (down 3%; equaling 83.11 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs). Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department bumps 3-2 with 57,500 units (down 3%; 75.43 million on-demand official streams of its songs); it previously spent 11 total and consecutive weeks at No. 1 (May 4-July 13-dated charts).
Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess steps 4-3 with 55,000 SEA units (up 18%, equaling 72.66 million official on-demand streams of its songs), hitting a new peak. It’s the best week, by SEA units and on-demand streams, for the album. The set, which debuted on the tally dated April 27 at No. 34, has been bumping around the Nos. 4-6 positions on the chart in the last six weeks.
Roan has four songs – three from Midwest Princess – on the latest Streaming Songs chart (dated Aug. 17), and all four hit new peaks. The three Midwest tracks gaining new ground are “Hot To Go!” (22-14), “Pink Pony Club” (31-21) and “Red Wine Supernova” (43-32). Meanwhile, the non-album cut “Good Luck, Babe!” climbs 5-4.
Zach Bryan’s former Top Streaming Albums leader The Great American Bar Scene falls 2-4 with 50,000 SEA units (down 16%; equaling 65.53 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs).
Charli XCX’s Brat bounces 10-5 with 49,500 SEA units (up 49%; equaling 65.17 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs). It’s the best week, by SEA units and on-demand streams, for the album. The set surges following the Aug. 1 release of the “Guess” remix, featuring Billie Eilish. “Guess” was originally issued as a solo Charli XCX cut on the deluxe edition of the Brat album. Eilish was added to a new remix on Aug. 1. All versions of the song are combined for charting purposes, and contribute to the Brat album’s SEA total.
Three Brat tunes are on the Top Streaming Albums chart: “Guess,” which debuts at No. 6, “Apple,” new at No. 39 (continuing to bask in its gone-viral dance trend), and “360” (38-41).
The lone debut in the top 10 of the new Top Streaming Albums chart is Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 2, at No. 6 with nearly 46,000 SEA units (59.44 million on-demand official streams of the 16 songs on the streaming edition of the album).
Charli XCX took to Twitter on Friday (Oct. 28) to give fans some insight on what would have been an incredible Halloween costume this year.
“So, i thought about going as @lorde for halloween this year,” she tweeted, noting that she was also going to do a cover of the star’s breakthrough 2013 hit, “Royals.”
Even better, when Charli texted Lorde about her thoughts, the 25-year-old singer replied, “Ok, iconic. I’m going as charli xcx.” However, the plans ultimately fell through.
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“We both cackled and then we were like, ok cute yeah but actually cba maybe next year,” Charli wrote. “So just so you guys know THE THOUGHT was there and we KNOW it’s legendary butttt we’re just lazy lol.”
and like actually doing a cover of “royals”— Charli (@charli_xcx) October 28, 2022
and so i text @lorde and told her the idea and she was like “ok, iconic. i’m going as charli xcx”— Charli (@charli_xcx) October 28, 2022
and then we both cackled and then we were like, ok cute yeah but actually cba maybe next year. so just so you guys know THE THOUGHT was there and we KNOW it’s legendary butttt we’re just lazy lol— Charli (@charli_xcx) October 28, 2022
Last year, Charli XCX brought some serious Halloween vibes to the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where performed “Good Ones,” the lead single from her fifth studio album, Crash, released in March of this year. For the performance, Charli XCX came out of her own tombstone, which was sat in a graveyard covered in mist.
Upon the album’s release, Crash hit No. 1 on Australia’s Albums Chart, and the British artist produced the same result impressive result on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.
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