Charli XCX has recorded an intimate live performance from Maida Vale, while sharing the meaning behind her song ‘2007’.
The pop star’s new session and interview from the iconic London studios will be available to watch in full via iPlayer from midday BST today (Wednesday August 5).
Recorded for BBC Music, the set will feature four songs from her new album ‘Music, Fashion, Film’: ‘I’m Afraid’, ‘SS26’, ‘Wink Wink’ and ‘No One Lasts Forever’.
As well as performing live, Charli spoke to Radio 1’s Jack Saunders about the record and discussed some of its tracks. “This album is about process and my love for making things, the joy that comes with that, sometimes the difficulty that comes with that,” she explained.
Speaking about the cut ‘2007’, she told the host: “The song itself is about making TikToks, because it’s like everyone can be a star from their bedroom, which is sort of what I talk about in the song and I think that’s fabulous!
“Like it’s so Warholian in a way. You know everybody can kind of have this moment where they blow up on TikTok because they’ve done a cool dance or a really aesthetically pleasing video or whatever it may be, and I think that’s really fun and creative.”
As for her recent single ‘Wink Wink’, Charli said: “I think it’s actually about romantic relationships and, in the past, having maybe been a bit misunderstood by previous partners and having felt the pressure of wanting to become what they wanted me to be.”
She went on to say that her husband, The 1975 drummer George Daniel, “gets it and he gets me”. Charli then added that her relationship with him is “a different thing” to what she’d experienced previously.
“So this song, in a way, is kind of me talking to my previous partners being like, ‘Yeah, sure. I’m this perfect person now, wink wink’,” the singer continued. “Whereas in reality, who is perfect, you know? No one.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Charli explained that lead track ‘Rock Music’ was “about that joy of getting to have fun making things with your friends”.
She continued: “Obviously I know there are some people who really think I’m just constantly living in an eye roll and being ironic all of the time, and I’m more than happy for people to feel that way.
“But actually [with] this song, it’s obviously like fun and funny, and there are funny elements about it, but when we were making it we were really connecting with each other, and actually the silliness in the song doesn’t necessarily mean that the song is not serious or real.”
In a four-star review of ‘Music, Fashion, Film’, NME said the star’s “mincing delivery on the chorus of ‘2007’ lends the song a self-aware preciousness”. It concluded: “‘Music, Fashion, Film’ can feel fragmentary and fleeting, distracted by its imagined, hyper-contemporary audience. But its celebration of art – and its capacity to let you transcend your bounds for something new – feels urgent and timeless.”
All four of Charli’s Maida Vale performances will also be available via BBC Music’s YouTube channel from 11am BST. Listen to Charli XCX: Live At The BBC here.
The singer recorded her session shortly before Fontaines D.C. played the final-ever Maida Vale set for the BBC.
Last week, Charli performed her first full headline show of the ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ era at Lollapalooza in Chicago, where she also joined Lorde on stage for ‘Girl, So Confusing’.
She is set to make her headline debut appearance at Reading & Leeds later this month before kicking off a North American arena tour with Underscores in September. Find any remaining tickets here.
Meanwhile, Charli has “begrudgingly” released the ‘B-sides Edition’ of ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ on iTunes and shared an accompanying film for the original album. The artist has revealed her top five Charli XCX tracks, too, including the “ultimate party song” and a cut that makes her feel “very sentimental”.
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