With BRAT, Charli XCX reached a new peak in her career in 2024. The triumph brought attention and influence. At the same time, she had the feeling of not being fully understood.
Charli XCX had her big breakthrough in 2024. Their album BRAT became a commercial and cultural event. It was a pop moment that reached far beyond streaming numbers. The album was deeply embedded in internet culture, fashion and club aesthetics. Although the Brit had been releasing music continuously for over a decade, she was previously considered too experimental for the classic charts and at the same time too present for the underground. Especially in the hyperpop scene, she occupied a special position as a crosser between avant-garde and pop. Their fan base was small, but close-knit. With BRAT, this dynamic changed radically.
A sudden change in the public
In a new interview with the industry journal “Billboard” Charli now openly described how drastic this sudden change had been for her. “I was a niche artist before, and then suddenly a huge new audience opened up to me – some of them really connected to me, others just individual aspects of me. Others liked me but didn’t really understand me,” she said. “How much you’re under observation, how much you’re in the spotlight, how carefully you’re listened to and watched – it’s a really interesting experience. It made it very clear to me how difficult this transition can be.”
She names the break between previous closeness to the audience and new mass reception. Visibility creates closeness, but also projections. The larger the audience, the more fragmented the artist’s image. The fact that Charli describes her success as a misunderstanding protects her from being taken over and at the same time ennobles her. The lack of understanding becomes a narrative that allows closeness without giving up control – a proven model in pop.
Between euphoria and exhaustion
What Charli suggests in interviews, she formulates even more directly on her Substack blog. In her essay “The Realities of Being a Pop Star” she writes about the pressure of expectations, emotional exhaustion and constant self-dramatization. Fame appears here as a process that shapes identity and demands energy. Creative peaks stand next to moments of emptiness. It is precisely these contradictions that characterize “Brat” from the inside out: behind the glaring surface, a dense web of emotions unfolds. It consists of self-doubt, loss of control and desire. Charli presents euphoria and overwhelm as two sides of the same movement. This is particularly clear in “I Think About It All The Time”. In this song she formulates thoughts about motherhood and life plans. Intimacy meets club aesthetics.
Expansion instead of repetition
The success of BRAT opens up new artistic spaces for Charli. It is currently almost omnipresent. A central project is the mockumentary “The Moment”. The film premiered at the beginning of 2026 and plays with the figure of the pop star as a projection surface and self-myth. He shows Charli in a deliberately exaggerated version of herself. Reality, performance and irony intertwine.
At the same time, she is intensifying her work in feature films. With roles in productions like “The Gallerist,” she is making a targeted move in independent cinema. There is also Gregg Araki’s announced film “I Want Your Sex”. The Brit is clearly interested in narratives beyond the pop stage and is increasingly involved in script and concept development.
Charli is also curating the soundtrack to the new film adaptation of the Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights. The songs that have already been released are characterized by dark sound spaces. Dramatic and partly Gothic charged atmospheres dominate. A special highlight is “House” with Velvet Underground legend John Cale.
