You can practically smell the scent of sweat, poppers, and peach ice vape smoke through the screen. A packed New York warehouse party: Charli XCX struts out of her dressing room with the charisma of a cult leader. Rocking sunglasses, her wavy black hair matching the puffer jacket draped off her shoulders, she radiates an unbothered cool, a messy recklessness.
XCX pouts at the camera, finally removing her shades to reveal Cleopatra eyeliner and a T-shirt that reads CULT CLASSIC. The crowd rages, the beats drop, and a glowing forcefield of iPhones remain hoisted aloft, documenting every second. Within a few hours of sign-ups going live in mid February, XCX’s Boiler Room performance shattered the company’s RSVP records.
Over 35,000 acolytes vied for just 400 spots at the Bushwick rave, given away via a lottery. Later that night, XCX was joined on stage by her frequent collaborators and avant-pop producers AG Cook and Easyfun, as well as her fiancé George Daniel, the drummer and producer for The 1975 . Her friend Julia Fox and TikTok phenom turned multi-hyphenate Addison Rae turned up too.
Apart from Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s tours (the latter of whom tapped XCX to open for her in 2018), it’s difficult to conceive of a recent event from a solo artist that has generated anything near this level of online buzz. Jacket by Loewe. T-shirt by Sarah Aphrodite.
Shorts by Guess. Shoes by Gianvito Rossi. “It was crazy.
It felt like I could really connect with my fans and bre.