A restless innovator who’s always treated authority with the disdain it deserves, it’s been a total delight to watch Charli XCX rewrite the rules of pop stardom this past decade. So when she finally snagged a number one album back in March with her fifth LP Crash, it felt like a real red letter day for so-called “difficult artists” everywhere, demonstrating that if you can keep faith in your vision the rest of the world will eventually catch up.
The enormity of the achievement clearly isn’t lost on the now-29-year-old singer-songwriter, who last night played her biggest headline show to date at Alexandra Palace. “This is extremely f***ing overwhelming,” she told the 10,000-strong audience mid-set, choking back tears while wrapped in a transgender pride flag handed to her by a fan. “I never thought I’d be able to do this, so thank you.”
And yet yesterday evening emphasised just how ready Charli is to take on the enormodomes. Bringing arena-level production values to a venue half the capacity, the ambitious staging featured Grecian columns, video interludes, a spectacular light show, several costume changes, tidy choreo from Charli and her two male dancers, and a cameo from Caroline Polachek during New Shapes.
The lion’s share of the set was dedicated to songs from Crash, and its playful hybrids of house, Eurodance, and jagged electro-pop proved perfect party-fuel. Accompanied by hyperreal footage of a desert in flames, the Robin S-sampling Used To Know Me was a highlight, as was the shimmering funk strut of future single Yuck. A tongue-in-cheek ode to getting the ick, she introduced the latter by telling the audience she’s desperate for Uncut Gems star Julia Fox to appear in the video, a choice that confirms Charli definitely isn’t done disrupting yet.
A selection of cherished singles were sprinkled throughout the set, including a barnstorming version of 1999 delivered through a web of green lasers, an industrial reworking of top 10 hit Boom Clap, and a blast through proto-hyperpop banger Vroom Vroom. “I’ve got hits, you know,” Charli bragged at the end of Boom Clap, safe in the knowledge she could have picked a completely different set list and still delivered as strong a show, such is the quality of her back catalogue.
For her notoriously fervent fans, it was a performance that simply vindicated what they’d always known: that Charli deserves to be the UK’s main pop girl. That dream is one step closer now, and we’ve zero doubt that a talent this brilliantly-bloody minded is capable of making it a reality.
