Collins Dictionary have chosen ‘brat’ as their word of the year, following the immense popularity of Charli XCX‘s album of the same name.
‘Brat‘ took on a new meaning in 2024 after Charli XCX announced it would be the name of her sixth studio album. Speaking to NME ahead of its release, she defined it as: “kind of bitchy and gossipy and hardcore”.
As the summer progressed, ‘brat’ took on a life of its own and became a cultural phenomenon. This accelerated after Kamala Harris was announced as the Democratic candidate for the 2024 US presidential race, when Charli XCX made headlines by tweeting, “Kamala IS brat”. Harris’s social media team quickly capitalised and re-branded to the ‘Brat’ aesthetic, leading to CNN trying and failing to explain the ‘Brat’ phenomenon live on air.
Now, given “brat”‘s undeniable impact on pop culture in 2024, Collins has announced it as their word of the year. Though they had previously defined a “brat” as “someone, especially a child”, who “behaves badly or annoys you”, they’ve shared that it now describes a person “characterised by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude”.
“‘Brat’ has become one of the most talked about words of 2024,” Collins said. It “resonated with people globally and ‘brat summer’ established itself as an aesthetic and a way of life”.
Elsewhere on the list is “era” – another pop-inspired word made popular by Taylor Swift‘s colossal and ongoing Eras Tour.
BREAKING NEWS The Collins Word of the Year is… brat.
Find out more about #CollinsWOTY 2024 and see the full list here: https://t.co/gmsnCqA0yv#wordoftheyear #CollinsDictionary #brat #CollinsWOTY pic.twitter.com/Y93NCjFVno
— Collins Dictionary (@CollinsDict) November 1, 2024
Charli recently scored her first ever UK Number 1 with her ‘Brat’ remix album ‘‘Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat’. In a glowing five-star review of the remix album, NME wrote that the LP “is a home run for its creator, letting her finish the game on her own terms. She has perfected the art of remixing, keeping the songs moving by giving them a brand new lease of life rather than letting them exist statically in their original form.”
“Although, to her, her career “feels small in the existential scheme of it all”, as she laments in ‘I Think About It All The Time’, the bottom line is that, with her sparkling CV, she’s more than earned the high praise this album and the world around it have brought her.”
Speaking about her decision to create the remix album at a listening party, Charli recently said: “One of the reasons I wanted to do this project was because I feel like it is really cool to show the infinite possibilities of dance music and music in general.
“It’s like to me, when a song comes out when you make a song, there’s still so many different versions of that song that could be made using just a tiny element of production from the original or a tiny reference to a lyrical concept or a literal lyric. I just feel it could all be completely deconstructed and then put back together again you know? like why not?”
In other news, XCX is set to embark on a short UK arena tour in support of ‘Brat’. Check out the full dates below and visit here for tickets.
Charli XCX’s 2024 UK arena tour dates are:
NOVEMBER
27 – Manchester, Co-op Live Arena
28 – London – The O2 Arena
29 – Birmingham – bp pulse Live
DECEMBER
2 – Glasgow, OVO Hydro