The Meaning Behind “Girl, so confusing” by Charli XCX and Lorde and Why We’re Living in ‘Brat’ Summer

Every pop star dreams of recording the summer’s biggest hit.

But Charli XCX has surpassed that milestone. The English singer, born Charlotte Aitchison, now dominates the season with a lime green square and blurry Arial font. Her latest album Brat is everywhere. Fellow pop stars have copped her hyperpop sound. And you are living in ‘Brat’ summer.

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Two weeks after Brat’s launch, Charli released a reworked version of “Girl, so confusing” with Lorde. The hit single works out in real-time the insecurities of one of the world’s most influential pop stars, proof that even the most talented and successful among us still struggle for confidence.

A Girl’s Girl

Charli XCX explores the complexities of female identity and feminism on “Girl, so confusing.” She lamented to The Independent the “unrealistic expectation” of being a “good feminist.”

“If you support women, and you like other women, then you’re a good feminist,” she said. “The reverse of that is, if you don’t like all other women who exist and breathe on this Earth then you’re a bad feminist. If you’re not a girl’s girl then you’re a bad woman.”

Girl, it’s so confusing sometimes to be a girl

Girl, it’s so confusing sometimes to be a girl

Girl, how do you feel being a girl?

How do you feel being a girl?

Man, I don’t know, I’m just a girl

And We’ll Never Be Royals

Some lines in “Girl, so confusing” aroused speculation the song is a diss track. The internet lit up as fans guessed who might be Charli’s target.

Though Charli shot down the speculation, fans persisted and pointed to Lorde as a possible mark. Meanwhile, Charli fueled the invented Lorde rivalry by telling Rolling Stone Lorde is the female artist she’s most jealous of.

“When ‘Royals’ came out, I was super jealous of the success that that song got, and that Ella got. You piece all this stuff together in your brain, like: ‘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.’”

Once, an interviewer confused Charli for Lorde and asked about “Royals.” Charli played along but it only added to her insecurity surrounding Lorde’s breakout success. It seemed inevitable for Lorde to appear on the remixed version, officially titled “The girl, so confusing version with lorde.” (It follows Charli’s pattern of presenting song titles as statements of fact.)

Girl, Interrupted

Charli’s verse reveals animosity.

Yeah, I don’t know if you like me

Sometimes I think you might hate me

Sometimes I think I might hate you

Lorde answers with surprise to hear from Charli.

Well, honestly, I was speechless

When I woke up to your voice note

You told me how you’d been feeling

Let’s work it out on the remix

Then Lorde speaks to her own insecurity.

’Cause for the last couple years

I’ve been at war in my body

I tried to starve myself thinner

And then I gained all the weight back

I was trapped in the hatred

And your life seemed so awesome

I never thought for a second

My voice was in your head

‘Brat’ Summer

Charli co-wrote “Girl, so confusing” with her longtime producer A. G. Cook. Cook—with his collective PC Music—is a pioneer of hyperpop, a now ubiquitous subgenre of electronic pop music. The underground buzz and critical acclaim of Charli XCX inspired artists like Lorde, many of whom enjoyed greater commercial success.

For the reworked version, Lorde added lyrics to the Brat track. Brat arrived on June 7, 2024, and reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200. With Charli’s color-coded pop takeover, she’s no longer underground, and her new album has become the kind of cultural touchstone Lorde once achieved with her smash hit “Royals” in 2013.

Inspired by a neon rave flyer, Brat, with its austere artwork, is everywhere. Routine items containing the album’s artwork color, such as shampoo, parking tickets, and Publix grocery stores, have been labeled “brat.”

A Vegan sausage company has marketed lime green packaging for “bratwurst.” It’s the kind of thing marketing executives spend large sums of money attempting to achieve.

‘Brat’ Generator

However, Charli thought it up as an anti-trend. She told Billboard the album art’s color is “actually quite disgusting.” She said it “spark[s] a really interesting conversation about [desirability].” She wanted the artwork to be “unfriendly and uncool.” Then the opposite happened as pop culture now experiences Brat everything.

Also, Charli’s team created an online “brat generator” for fans to easily create Brat-inspired artwork.

Made for Memes

Though Brat is built aesthetically for high-speed, nuance-adverse internet culture, the album’s themes deal with the complexities of womanhood, ego, and connections. “Girl, so confusing” is Charli publicly working out her insecurities with the very person who’s the root of Charli’s uncertainties.

What’s not confusing is Charli XCX is the most dynamic pop star going.

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