Charli XCX already knows you're completely smitten. Although the "360" songstress catapulted into the mainstream limelight by promoting her Brat-era persona, she confessed that it remains baffling for her when people assume she's nothing more than a mean girl. "It's fascinating to witness how people absorb your personality and then regurgitate it—what they latch onto, what they overlook," Charli revealed to Vanity Fair in an interview published on October 14. "I'm always curious about what the casual observer thinks. And they probably envision me as a party girl who indulges in drugs and has a bit of a bitchy edge."
While Charli (born Charlotte Emma Aitchison) acknowledges she can be "quite direct and blunt," she insisted that the only genuinely authentic aspect of her onstage persona is its inherent messiness. "I think there's a connection in that there's a certain untidiness and a lack of perfection," Charli mused. "It's the fusion of discussing these aspects while also embracing and genuinely grappling with them that makes me whole. And I believe it renders me honest."
Of course, Charli recognizes that her candor can sometimes backfire. As she put it, "I have a big mouth, and I say things that sometimes land me in hot water." The latest controversy involves an alleged feud with Taylor Swift. After the "Karma" singer released her album The Life of a Showgirl earlier this month, fans speculated that her diss track "Actually Romantic" might be a retort to Charli's "Sympathy is a Knife."
"I hear you call me Boring Barbie when the coke's given you courage," Taylor croons on the track. "You high-fived my ex and then said you're glad he ghosted me / You wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face."
In her most recent interview, Charli declined to address the supposed feud with Taylor, for whom she served as an opening act during the 2017 Reputation stadium tour. However, keen-eyed fans detected a potential Easter egg hinting at the feud when Charli made a surprise cameo on Saturday Night Live on October 11 during Role Model's performance of "Sally, When the Wine Runs Out." During her brief appearance, Charli donned a "Max's Kansas City" T-shirt, and while Role Model's album is titled Kansas Anymore—and he wore the same T-shirt in a promotional video for his SNL appearance—some fans interpreted it as a subtle jab at Taylor due to her relationship with fiancé and Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce.
As one fan tweeted on October 12, "I like Taylor and I like Charli, but can we talk about Charli wearing a Kansas City shirt on SNL, lol?"
