Charli XCX

Charlotte Emma Aitchison, born on August 2, 1992, and professionally known as Charli XCX, is an English singer-songwriter noted for her diverse style. She started creating music at the age of fourteen, and her first release was a 2008 limited-edition album fittingly named 14.

Charli signed to Atlantic Records by 2010 and released her debut single "Stay Away" in May 2011. Her official debut album, True Romance, came out in 2013, garnering critical acclaim but limited commercial success. Her significant breakthrough was through hit collaborations like Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” and Icona Pop’s “I Love It.”

In April 2014, Charli achieved solo success with “Boom Clap,” featured on The Fault in Our Stars soundtrack, earning triple platinum in the U.S. and gold in the UK. Her second album, Sucker, with a pop-punk influence, was more commercially successful, with tracks like “Break The Rules,” “Doing It” (featuring Rita Ora), and “Famous” performing well on the UK charts.

Starting 2015, Charli began working on her third studio album, collaborating with PC Music artists like SOPHIE, Danny L Harle, and A. G. Cook for a more electronic sound. The Vroom Vroom EP was praised as a groundbreaking pop form, although her label was disappointed by the performance of singles such as "After the Afterparty" and "Boys," which entered the UK Top 40 but had minimal success internationally.

Challenging her label’s commercial predictions, she dropped two “mixtapes” in 2017: Number 1 Angel and Pop 2, featuring artists like MØ, ​CupcakKe, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Tove Lo. These mixtapes received positive feedback, with Pop 2 earning an 84 score on Metacritic.

In 2018, she released several singles, including long-awaited tracks “Girls Night Out” and “No Angel,” and joined Taylor Swift’s reputation Stadium Tour from May to August, gaining exposure to a vast new audience.

In the summer of 2019, she released a 15-track self-titled album, collaborating once more with regular partners and new collaborators like Troye Sivan, Big Freedia, Planet 1999, Christine and the Queens, and Lizzo.

During 2020, she crafted a new project primarily during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic: how i’m feeling now. Created with assistance from Cook and Bon Iver producer BJ Burton, a documentary about its recording, Alone Together, debuted at SXSW the following spring.