Charli XCX and Lorde are squashing their beef in the remix to “So Confusing.” Dive into their alleged feud timeline and a breakdown of the track’s lyrics below!
What Happened Between Charli XCX and Lorde?
Following the release of Charli’s album Brat on June 7, rumors that her song “Girl, So Confusing” was about Lorde took over the internet.
Charli sings about another artist’s desire to see her “falling over” and “failing,” as well as awkward meetings where they made halfhearted plans to collaborate. Internet rumors speculated the song was about Lorde, especially given the lyrical parallels to Lorde’s “Team,” and Charli’s references to a singer who acts and looks similarly to her as they “got the same hair.”
The Brat singer addressed similarities between her and the “Royals” songstress in a Rolling Stone interview in May, recalling a 2014 incident where Charli was mistaken for Lorde.
“When ‘Royals’ came out, I was super jealous of the success that that song got, and that [Lorde] got. You piece all this stuff together in your brain, like: ‘She was into my music. She had big hair; I had big hair. She wore black lipstick; I once wore black lipstick.’”
She continued, “You create these parallels and think, ‘Well, that could have been me.’ But it couldn’t have because we’re completely different people.”
Despite their past issues, Charli has revealed that the two pop stars were on good terms at the time of the interview, and Lorde even attended one of Charli’s New York City performances shortly after Brat‘s release.
Breaking Down ‘The Girl, So Confusing’ Lyrics
Lorde surprised fans by appearing on the remix of “Girl, So Confusing,” which was released on June 21.
Where Charli sang on the original, “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/Can’t tell if you wanna see me/Falling over and failing,” Lorde responds, in part: “Well, honestly, I was speechless when I woke up to your voice note / You told me how you’d been feeling,” she sings. “Let’s work it out on the remix.”
The Melodrama singer gets deeper into her feelings revolving around the “Vroom Vroom” singer, revealing that her cancelling plans or being dishonest with her wasn’t due to any hard feelings towards Charli.
“You always say, ‘let’s go out,’/But then I cancel last minute/I was so lost in my head/And scared to be in the pictures/Because for the last couple years/I’ve been avoiding my body/I tried to starve myself thinner/Then I gained all the weight back,” Lorde admitted later in her verse. “I was trapped in a hatred/And your life seemed so awesome/I never thought for a second my voice was in your head.”
Lorde later comes to terms with Charli’s feelings, as she reworks a verse from the first iteration of the song that includes Charli’s projection that, if the two were to make music, “the internet would go crazy” as a result. True!
The best part? When the two completely squash their beef with one lyric from Lorde:
“I’m glad I know how you feel /’Cause I ride for you, Charli.”
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