Charli XCX
Emily Lipson*Hold tight, Charli XCX fans! The pop star’s new single with SEVENTEEN‘s Vernon is on the way.
“So, @charli_xcx and @pledis_17 when’s the collab coming?” NME tweeted on Monday, leading the pop star to retweet the question with a rather coy answer. “Actually kinda soon…,” she responded, sending her more than 3.6 million followers into a frenzy of anticipation.
Charli has made it no secret she’s a fan of the K-pop idol, first tweeting earlier this month, “how do i get in touch with Vernon??” before asking point blank if the singer wanted to work together. Clearly, the appreciation was mutual, as Vernon tweeted back from SEVENTEEN’s official account, “YES…still can’t believe this is real wow” with a pair of mind-blown emojis.
While the How I’m Feeling Now singer has yet to hint at what the K-pop-infused track could sound like, it will follow her recent all-star team-ups with Rina Sawayama and Caroline Polachek and Christine and the Queens on “Beg for You” and “New Shapes,” respectively — both of which will appear alongside lead single “Good Ones” on her upcoming fifth studio album Crash.
In other good news, Charli is about to get a second chance to perform as musical guest on this season of Saturday Night Live, after she was forced to back out of the late-night sketch series’ Christmas episode amid the height of COVID-19’s omicron variant surge in New York City. Now, she’s set to take the stage at Studio 8H on March 5 opposite host Oscar Isaac.
Check out Charli’s response about the Vernon collab below.
NEWS
Olivia Rodrigo is stepping into a confident new chapter with the arrival of her third studio album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. During a conversation with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s The Zane Lowe Show, the 23 year old singer-songwriter opened up about the personal growth behind the record, explaining how a more developed understanding of love, relationships, and heartbreak influenced the songs she created.
Looking back on the album title, Rodrigo said it perfectly captured her long standing fascination with emotions that are both beautiful and painful. "I always just thought that my favourite love songs were songs that were a little bit sad and a little bit broken, a little bit gut-wrenching," she said. "I love that title because it also reflected all of my favourite love songs. Songs that were about romance and about positivity but were also a little bit broken." She added that the title became even more meaningful as her own experiences became more layered. "Life has two sides. There's two sides to the coin of love."
One of the album's defining moments comes on the song "the cure," which Rodrigo described as the emotional center of the project. The track emerged after a powerful discussion with a close friend about the often complicated nature of modern relationships. "I was like, 'I want to write this record about love... I have all these love songs that I just love and I'm in this relationship that is "happy." why do I feel so depressed? Why can't I feel how I think it's supposed to feel in my head?'" Rodrigo recalled.
Creating the song gave her the opportunity to examine feelings in a way she could not during the SOUR and GUTS years. "Songwriting for me is best done when you're a little bit afraid to write it," she told Lowe. "Having written that song, I learned so much about myself... Just being a teenager, you look at love like black and white. You're like, 'This person hurt me and I hate them.' Or like, 'I love this person. They're the best person to ever exist.' And I think this record for me... is me playing in the gray area a little bit more."
