How Charli xcx Is Challenging Herself With Music, Fashion, Film Tour: ‘I’ve Really Climbed My Way Up From Nothing’
Categoria: Musica
Inside the alt-pop star's latest outing.
Por Billboard | 02/10/2026
After spending over a decade pushing pop forward from its periphery, Charli xcx seized the zeitgeist in 2024 with Brat . The Grammy-winning album propelled her to arena headliner for the first time — and now the 34-year-old is filling those same rooms and topping festival bills in support of her July rock-infused album, Music, Fashion, Film . For the tour, which wraps its North America leg in October and heads to Europe in February, she’s still doing things her way, with an uncompromising, high-concept show that leans heavily on Brat and Music . “I’m not really performing to please anyone other than myself,” she says, “which is maybe not the attitude that everybody takes, but that’s the attitude that I take.” Related ‘Every Moment Is Massive and Magnificent’: Noah Kahan Reflects on a Monumental Year — And Eyes a Grammys Breakthrough Kid Rock Searching For Salvation on Upcoming 'Halfway to Jesus' Christian Rock Album Featuring Eminem Collab Mel C Is Donating Some of Her Best Kit For a Good Cause You debuted this show while headlining Chicago’s Lollapalooza for the first time. How intimidating was that? That was so wild, to be honest, and really exciting. I think there’s that sort of inner battle to fight this voice of what people might want from you versus the kind of artistic vision of what’s true to the album, and luckily that voice never got too loud. There was a world where I could have played songs from my catalog that everybody definitely knows — but I am not really that interested in doing that anymore. Especially a festival headline set, I like to use that as an opportunity to really put forward my most pure vision as an artist. Maybe that is something that not everybody will like. Maybe that’s something that new people will discover. But I [wanted] to use it as an opportunity to challenge an audience and the idea of what a festival set can be. How does touring allow you to express a side of your creativity that you can’t in the studio? For this show in particular, we really wanted to make things feel as cinematic as we possibly could, whilst obviously understanding the parameters of being in an arena. Being in an arena, you can make things feel really maximalist. You can throw all of the toys [at an audience] right away. But I think what we’ve done with the show is we’ve practiced some restraint, so that when you do feel that moment of pyro, it stands out. Was there something with this show that you had always wanted to do but hadn’t previously been able to pull off? Yeah, like, the whole thing. [ Laughs .] As an artist, I’ve really climbed my way up from nothing — I used to perform with an iPod on a makeshift stage, and that was my production. The thing that’s interesting is every time you get closer to doing your dream show, you realize that, actually, it’s worth putting the money back in rather than like taking the money and running, because I want to do a show that feels artist