Charli XCX accidentally on purpose drew herself into the current heated American presidential race with what she thought was an innocuous tribute to Vice President Kamala Harris’ ineffable, no f’s given qualities. And while her “Kamala IS Brat” tweet last month helped boost the enthusiasm about what was then the very-new White House campaign by the current VP-turned-Democratic-candidate, Charli told Vulture that the tweet fired off while hanging around her pool in L.A. was meant to be something “positive and lighthearted” rather than a strict political endorsement.
Just days after Harris announced her intention to run for the Democratic nomination following President Joe Biden’s historic decision to give up his second run for the nation’s top job, Charli made noise by announcing “Kamala IS brat.”
The reference was to the title of XCX’s new album and a messy-on-purpose lifestyle Charli has described as someone who can be high lux at times, or who has a “pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra” at others. Very aware of what she was doing and how it might land, Charli watched as the Harris campaign immediately seized on what seemed like a cool girl nod to their insurgent effort, by instantly rebranding the Kamala HQ‘s X page with the same font and lime green logo style as the singer’s album title.
“To be on the right side of democracy, the right side of women’s rights, is hugely important to me,” said Charlie, who as a British citizen cannot vote in the U.S. election, but whose tweet became a cringe-worthy talking point on cable and broadcast news programs where confused anchors tried to figure out what the kids were talking about.
“I’m happy to help prevent democracy form failing forever,” she added, appearing to nod to the existential threat to the American political system that President Biden and Harris have said former President and third-time White House aspirant Donald Trump represents. “I obviously knew what I was doing.”
That said, she had no inkling the tweet would be seem more than 55 million times and turned into its own meta meme. “Did I think me talking about being a mess b–ch and, like partying and needing a Bic lighter and a pack of Marlboro Lights would end up on CNN? No,” she said, noting that she is not, and has never aspired to be, “a political artist… I’m not Bob Dylan and I’ve never pretended to be… My music is not political. Everything I do in my life feeds back into my art. Everything I say, wear, think, enjoy — it all funnels back into my art. Politics doesn’t feed my art.”
In the same interview, Charli revealed that she is already working on another “full-length other project” that will definitely be “in the bratosphere, so to speak.” At press time no additional information was available on that project.