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Fans, peers react to Charli XCX and Lorde’s ‘Girl, so confusing’ collaboration: “I cry listening to it now”

Fans and peers have reacted to a new version of the Charli XCX song ‘Girl, so confusing’, which features Lorde.

Earlier this month, ‘Girl, so confusing’ was released as part of ‘Brat’, the critically-acclaimed sixth studio album by Charli XCX which debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart. Upon its release, Lorde praised the album on an Instagram story, saying “There is NO ONE like this bitch”.

Last week (June 20), Charli began teasing the Lorde collaboration after getting a wall promoting her album repainted to feature Lorde’s name. She then shared a snippet of the New Zealand singer’s verse on Instagram before releasing the full song, titled ‘The girl, so confusing version with lorde’, the next day.

The collaboration came with high anticipation from fans, who have been cognizant about the duo’s relationship through the years – to them, the original ‘Girl, so confusing’ song had seemed to heavily allude to it.

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Charli previously opened up about her relationship with Lorde, admitting to being “super jealous” of Lorde’s success when she was younger: “She was into my music. She had big hair; I had big hair. She wore black lipstick; I once wore black lipstick. You create these parallels and think, ‘Well, that could have been me.’ But it couldn’t have because we’re completely different people.”

To say the least, the inclusion of Lorde’s feature has added a whole new dimension to the song for fans – many reacted to her confessional verse as a deeply resonant look into the complications of female friendships, while some were moved by the ‘Melodrama’ artist singing openly about living with anorexia.

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Twitch streamer HTHAZE called it “the best pop song of the year”. “I cried listening to it on stream and I cry listening to it now,” he wrote on X/Twitter. “The vulnerability from Lorde meeting Charli where she was at and creating such an impactful verse. This is pop music baby”.

X/Twitter user @nikkibitching observed how Charli and Lorde unearthed a common problem in friendships – miscommunication – and exorcised it through pop music. “The amount of times this miscommunication happens between girlfriends!!! I’m tearing up it was healing to hear them together :)” the user writes.

Many other users picked up on this, sharing how its lyrics capture their own lived experiences of sustaining friendships.

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Charli herself addressed the overwhelming fan response, tweeting: “well.. the internet went crazy !”

It was not just fans who picked up on the song – Marina joined the discourse by gushing about the song and Charli’s “iconic album”.

“It’s so courageous and human to make work about this topic and it’s so healing to listen to it,” she tweeted.

Meanwhile, on Instagram, Caroline Polachek shared a picture of herself with a promotional poster of ‘Brat’, quoting the lyrics “i ride for you charli”. Charli responded with “Love youuuuu”.

X/Twitter user @benvyle provided their own analysis, praising Lorde for expanding the original song’s resonance while capturing the theme of the album: “lorde’s lyrics fully capture the double meaning of ‘brat’ that charli has described in interview; namely that as well as a deeply cunty and snarling aesthetic it is also a defensive posture adopted when someone feels insecure. so slay xx”, the user writes.

Charli has also opened up about the backstories of some other tracks off ‘Brat’. ‘Talk Talk’, she shared, was inspired by nearly following now-fiancée George Daniel of The 1975 to the bathrooms at the NME Awards.

“We were not together, but we were definitely very into each other,” she explained. “We were at the NME Awards, we were both sat on different tables, and we were like texting each other, but we weren’t hanging out. But we were both looking over at each other – it was very like, one of us would look and the other one would look away, and then just vice versa.

“You know when you just feel like someone is watching you, you can feel a hole burning in the back of your head or something like that,” she continued. “It was very much that moment.”

Meanwhile, Lorde is teasing her fourth album. In an update on her Instagram, shared earlier this month (June 4), she wrote: “If the tools do not exist you are spiritually obliged to create them”, along with variations on the word ‘L4’.

In a four-star review of ‘Brat’, NME wrote: “On the self-described “club record”, XCX offers pure party girl hedonism. Percolating beats, brash synths, left-field production and vocal lines that flit between bratty quips or honest one-liners.”

“With ‘Brat’, XCX demonstrates that going her own way will always sound pretty good,” it added.