Camila Cabello felt “crushed” when she was accused of emulating Charli XCX’s style.
The pop star went through a “weird, intense time” after fans began comparing her 2024 single ‘I Luv It’ to Charli’s 2017 song ‘I Got It’ – and Camila admits she was “hurt” by the negative reaction to the track, which featured on her 2024 album ‘C,XOXO’.
She told Dork magazine. “It crushed me. I don’t know how other artists do it because the negative stuff really depresses me … It was a very weird, intense time, and I started dissociating, which has only happened very few times in my life …
“In the beginning. I was hurt and felt s***** about the reaction but I feel like I’m open to hearing positive things like that now. I am still processing everything.”
Camila went on to add: “Even if nobody liked it, I’d still love this record because I only did what felt great to me. But knowing that other people have connected to this music does make me feel understood. I don’t know if I’ve had that before.
“The things I was writing about for this record are more complex, and there is more tension, which doesn’t always lend itself to easily palatable pop. Unless it’s a song like ‘I Luv It’, I guess. I do want to always push myself as a writer, though.”
Camila – who found fame as a member of Fifth Harmony, before embarking on a solo career – previously admitted she enjoys “polarising” records but she felt like releasing ‘C,XOXO’ was difficult because it was very different from her previous offerings.
She told NYLON magazine: “My favourite albums are kind of polarising. Not all people understand it, but the people that love it? Really love it.
“Even when I felt misunderstood, it felt like people were more passionate about my music than they have been in a while. And that’s cool. I feel like that’s what my favourite artist is.”
Camila recalled people questioning her “authenticity” when she released the album, saying: “This was a hard album cycle for me. It was really challenging from an audience point of view.
“I wrote this whole album, and people are questioning my authenticity. It’s kind of like a trippy thing. Like, this came from my gut.”