It’s really Charli XCX’s summer, and we’re all just living in it. As if you hadn’t already heard enough about brat from every gay person ever, the singer just dropped “The girl, so confusing version with lorde,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
Pretty much as soon as Charli released brat on June 7, the internet began dissecting who and what each track was about, especially the song at the album’s midpoint, “Girl, so confusing.” With lyrics like, “People say we’re alike / They say we’ve got the same hair / We talk about making music /But I don’t know if it’s honest,” sleuths quickly drew the conclusion that the song was likely about Charli’s insecurities about her relationship with Lorde. The two are indeed rocking similar wavy brunette looks right now, which was the most direct giveaway. They’re also both known for being two of the most transgressive pop artists of the 2010s and therefore beloved by gay people.
But as “Girl, so confusing” shows, their relationship also seems to have been more complicated under the surface. As Entertainment Weekly reported, it goes all the way back to an interview from nearly 10 years ago, when Charli was asked about her inspiration for “Royals” (a song that is famously by Lorde, not Charli). EW also noted that in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year, Charli said she was “super jealous” of the Lorde’s success with “Royals”.
Fast forward to Thursday when Charli started teasing the collaboration on the famed “brat wall” in Brooklyn, where Lorde’s name appeared in those signature sans-serif lowercase letters. Then, at midnight, the remix dropped.
