With her support for Kamala Harris – ‘kamala IS brat’ – pop star Charli XCX is influencing the political campaign in America. Not only Kamala Harris’ campaign was colored lime green, but also the front pages of NOS, The Volkskrant, Fidelity in DeMorgen colored along. It was getting a bit much, that green hype. ‘Will This Influential TikTok Trend Make It Through the Fall?‘, asked the Volkskrant.Brat Summer is Dead‘, Pitchfork declaimed. ‘oh?’, Charli XCX responded, instantly. ‘see u next week 🙂’
Foto Terrence O’Connor/Warner Music Benelux
The week of Charli’s 32nd birthday, on August 2, the British pop singer treated us to the new song Guess. And guess what, the music video – which wouldn’t look out of place as a movie trailer in the Pathé – immediately became the number 1 trending music video on YouTube. The Top 40 predicts a megahit because ‘Charli XCX does it with Billie Eilish’. A sentence that can be interpreted both literally and figuratively, while Guess is not multi-interpretable.
The Revolution will not be televised, sprak Gil Scott-Heron ooit. Recent schreef journalist Jon Savage in The Secret Public how lgbt artists were very influential in the period 1955 to 1979, even though those songs were sung in secret language. Even big pop stars like George Michael and Ricky Martin kept their sexuality a secret.
Last year it turned out that Sufjan Stevens his entire career, singing about queer love while, tragically, shrouding it in cryptic phrasing. But in recent years, just out of sight of the mainstream, something has been shifting. And the way sexuality is sung about is now changing with revolutionary speed.
Now musicians like Frank Ocean, Boygenius, Troye Sivan and Froukje are normalizing a new kind of love song. The song in which a he sings about a he and a she sings about a she. Once upon a time, a bucket of fried chicken was sent to Prince thrown when he sang ‘am I straight or gay?’ Now people are throwing rainbow flags at Harry Styles’ stage.
But where Styles (1994) reveals his sexual orientation out of the spotlight Billie Eilish (2001) refuses to do so. In december Eilish also lashed out at the American tabloid press, who kept guessing about her sexual orientation. ‘I like girls and boys’, Eilish said, ‘leave me alone.’
What’s happening now is unprecedented. Charli XCX is a huge pop star, but Billie Eilish is more than just a huge pop star. With 101 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Billie Eilish is currently more streamed than Taylor Swift, making her the second most-streamed artist in the world.
I see freshmen with Billie socks, Billie shirts, Billie pencil cases. No wonder Billie sells out the Ziggo Dome three times in the blink of an eye with her hit me hard and soft tour – even if it’s for May 4, 5 and 7, 2025, and even if a standing ticket costs 141 euros.
After providing the final scene of Barbie with the monster hit What Was I Made For? , Eilish seems more popular than ever. In that short song, Eilish gently and cautiously questions traditionally assigned gender roles. In Guess , Eilish is now gentle, but not cautious.
Charli XCX sings, in a bouncy-ball line that will stick in your head for a long time: ‘You wanna guess the color of my underwear, you wanna know what I got goin’ on down there.’ The first minute is of a house party, people drinking, people kissing, man and woman, woman and woman. Charli: ‘Eat it up for lunch, yeah, it’s so delicious.’
Enter Billie Eilish—who recently scored a worldwide hit with Lunch. She drives a bulldozer, and the bulldozer tears Charli’s living room wall in half. Eilish licks her teeth, laughs, a mischievous look in her eyes. She addresses Charli XCX directly and sings:
I wanna try it, bite it, lick it, spit it
Pull it to the side and get all up in it
Kiss it, bite it, can I fit it?
Charli likes boys, but she knows I’d hit it
Guess is the hit of the Brat summer, which immediately at number 1 arrives in England. Eilish was invited to sing at the Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Charli XCX posted a snarky comment on her friend’s official announcement: ‘… you wanna guess ;)’ Just the thought of it.
Also read: Charli XCX has finally made pop music her own.
