Charli XCX didn’t think ‘Brat’ would “be very successful at all”.
The ‘Apple’ hitmaker’s sixth LP received widespread critical acclaim around the world on release last summer and though she’s thrilled with how well the record has performed, ultimately, she just wanted to please herself.
She told W magazine: “I wasn’t thinking that it would be very successful at all, despite believing in the music massively. I was making it for myself. To please everybody is sort of pointless.”
The record has helped Charli land eight Grammy nominations and she’ll also be performing at the ceremony on Sunday (02.02.25) but despite being nominated in previous years, the 32-year-old star doesn’t believe she was “on the radar” of the Recording Academy before now
She said of the night: “My dream scenario would be getting a plus-10 so I could bring all my best friends, but, realistically, I’ll probably get a plus-one. Maybe Troye [Sivan] and I can share and make it a plus-two.
“My vibe is just wanting to have a good time. Let’s be real, I wasn’t even on the Grammys’ radar last year, so it’s not something I ever expected. The thing is, wherever I am becomes fun anyway, so I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”
On her remix LP, ‘Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat’, Charli collaborated with the likes of Lorde, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Bon Iver and Julian Casablancas and while she acknowledged they all “make completely different works” in their own right, she believes they all have similar qualities.
She said: “[Each of them] inhabits this general atmosphere, this tone.
“They have this defiance to them. The connective tissue that makes them all work together is a je ne sais quoi. It’s just this thing that they have that’s undeniably unique to them.”
And duetting with Lorde on ‘Girl, so confusing’ brought her and Charli closer as they put to bed years of rumours about them feuding.
Charli said: “It brought us so much closer together. People are people, and people are tricky sometimes, and relationships are confusing.
“There are so many different colours to the spectrum of friendship. To actually come out and talk about that was really powerful for both of us, especially since everything is so quick to be dramatised and twisted into something that it is not. She just wanted to go there. She had no ego.”