Charli XCX on why relationships between women are ‘super complex’

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Pop star Charli XCX has hit out at the “unrealistic” expectations of women in the music industry, after claiming we are “past the point” where female artists are constantly pitted against one another in the media.

The British artist, who is about to release her latest album Brat, recently shared a new single “360” and its accompanying video, in which she unites a committee of “hot internet girls” including Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott and Chloe Sevigny.

In an interview with The Guardian, the singer born Charlotte Aitchison addressed one of the album tracks, “Girl, So Confusing”, on which she apparently addresses a female friend whose intentions she “can’t figure out”.

“Relationships between women are super-complex and multi-layered”, she said. “You can like someone and dislike them at the same time; you can have the best time of your life on a night out with someone but not be that close to them at all.”

She added: “The song is saying, sometimes it’s really confusing to be a girl, and that’s fine.”

The “Good Ones” artist also called out the “unrealistic expectation” in the music industry that “if you support women, and you like other women, then you’re a good feminist”.

“The reverse of that is, if you don’t like all other women who exist and breathe on this Earth then you’re a bad feminist,” she explained. “If you’re not a girl’s girl then you’re a bad woman.”

Charli has called out the music industry for its double standards on a number of occasions. Last year, she addressed controversy surrounding the Brit Awards after it failed to nominate a single female artist in its Best Artist category.

The singer, who features among the Pop/R&B nominees but was omitted from the Best Artist shortlist, said on the red carpet: “I heard that the reason that there aren’t any women nominated in the best artist category is that the Brits felt that there weren’t enough women in album cycle.

“But I was in album cycle and had a number one, critically acclaimed album, so yeah.”

Charli last year featured on the official Barbie movie soundtrack with her hit song “Speed Drive”. Her last album, Crash, was released in 2022; Brat is due for release on Friday 7 June.

She and Australian pop artist Troye Sivan have also announced a 21-city co-headline arena tour around North America, which will kick off at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan on 14 September.