With the recent announcement that Charli XCX will produce and star in The Moment, an upcoming film project with indie powerhouse A24, the global superstar will get the platform to showcase her creative range beyond music.
Known for genre-defying pop hits and bold persona, Charli was one of the headline acts at the Grammy awards in November, winning three awards from seven nominations.
She has also dominated this year’s Brit Awards with five nominations in major categories, including Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and British Album of the Year.
Reflecting on her move into filmmaking, Charli told Variety: “I didn’t want to dive into something new without truly understanding it. I spent years reading and learning before I took the leap.”
Charli, 32, ruled the last summer’s music scene with her groundbreaking album, Brat, which became one of Metacritic's top 20 highest-rated albums of all time.
The green tint of the album cover spread like wildfire and was used by the likes of Kamala Harris in her presidential campaign and London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Ulez project.
The term brat became a cultural phenemomen and the album went viral on TikTok with fans recording videos of them dancing to songs, in particular, the Apple which spawned its own dance with Charli herself joining in with the trend.
Large swaths of social media users - primarily Gen Zers - celebrated the carefree, rebellious lifestyle depicted throughout the record.
A remix of the song Guess, featuring Billie Eilish debuted atop the UK singles chart, marking Charli's second number-one single.
Brat peaked at number one in the UK, Australia, and Ireland, and reached the top ten in 12 other countries, including the US, where it marked Charli's highest debut on the Billboard 200 (number three).
The 'brat summer' phenomenon saw the word brat top the Collins Dictionary list for Word of the Year.
Speaking on the album’s success, Charli said she felt vindicated that her unqiue style of music was being appreciated.
"This fanbase that I have built are so hungry for me and my peers and our slightly left world of pop dance music they're hungry for us to succeed. Niche is rewarded so much more than it ever has been, and I think that labels recognise that," she said.
She added: “I wasn’t born to do radio one liners. That’s not who I am at all.
“Brat is a very confrontational and aggressive, and the lyrics are sort of life texts that I would send to my friends. I see it as being quite brutalist.”
Charli XCX was born Charlotte Emma Aitchison in Cambridge. She is the only child of Shameera, a nurse and flight attendant and Jon Aitchison an entrepreneur and show booker.
Her mother was born into a Muslim family of Gujarati Indian descent in Uganda, while her father is Scottish.
Charli told the Guardian that as a child she spent her weekends with Nana and Appa in Crawley, watching Bollywood films.
She revealed that she didn’t learn to speak Gujarati other than the phrase for “hurry up” (“jaldi-jaldi!”), because of her mother’s difficult experience of her early years in the UK which included someone throwing a milkshake over her in the street.
Racism has also ventured into Charli’s life and career.
She hit back after someone wrote on a message board "XCX always looks dirty". Charli responded by saying, "I am extremely proud of my indian heritage. I love my roots & my family. Don't call me/anyone 'dirty' bcoz of the colour of someone's skin."
Charli attended Slade School of Fine Art but dropped out after the first year.
“I found it very intimidating,” she said. “I just felt like a loser the whole time. I didn’t feel eloquent enough, I didn’t feel well-read enough.”
Her break came when was discovered on Myspace in 2008 when she began posting songs on the social media platform, and was later invited to perform at raves.
In 2010, Charli was signed to Asylum Records and released her first commercially available album True Romance. However, it wasn't until the following year, with the release of Sucker, that she had success in the UK charts, with the album going to Number 15.
The singer rose to prominence with the Swedish duo Icona Pop collaboration, I Love It, with the song becoming her first number-one hit in the UK and receiving global success.
Throughout her career, Charli has continuously pushed the boundaries of pop music, seamlessly blending elements of electronic, punk, and experimental genres. Albums like Sucker (2014), Charli (2019), and How I’m Feeling Now (2020) showcasd her prowess as an iconic singer and songwriter.
In April 2023, she made her electrifying debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. In June 2023, she released the single Speed Drive as part of Barbie the Album, the soundtrack of director Greta Gerwig’s film Barbie.
Speed Drive turned out to be a major hit and entered the UK Singles Chart at number nine, and the US Singles Chart at number 73, her first time since Boom Clap and Break the Rules in 2014.
The singer also served as the co-composer alongside Leo Birenberg for the 2023 film Bottoms. In the same year, she collaborated with singer Addison Rae on the song 2 Die 4 from Rae’s extended play AR. The following October, she joined forces with English singer Sam Smith on the single In the City.
Charli has also turned her hand to modelling last year, fronting a campaign for Kim Kardashian's shapewear brand, SKIMS. She joined an exclusive list of A-list stars that have fronted the viral band, including the likes of Paris Hilton, Lana Del Rey, Kate Moss and Sabrina Carpenter.
