Charli XCX makes a surprise appearance singing with the Strokes at Outside Lands - Watch the video

A surprise encounter between Charli XCX and the Strokes on the Outside Lands stage, the festival currently underway at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The British popstar joined Julian Casablancas' band during their headline set to duet on "Take It Or Leave It", the closing track of "Is This It", the Strokes' landmark 2001 debut album.
Charli XCX, who had performed at the festival the previous evening, was welcomed on stage by Casablancas with an unequivocal introduction: "She's a superstar". The frontman then joked about the curious coincidence that saw the two artists release their respective new albums on the very same day, July 24th: "Reality Awaits" for the Strokes and "Music, Fashion, Film" for Charli XCX (our current album of the month). A long-distance showdown that, at least commercially, had a pretty clear-cut winner. "You're the queen of the charts," Casablancas told the singer. "She won, and by a mile. In our defense, she's a massive popstar".

The appearance at Outside Lands isn't actually the first artistic encounter between Charli XCX and the Strokes' frontman. Casablancas had already contributed to the new version of "Mean Girls", included on "Brat And It's Completely Different But Also Still Brat", the remix album with which Charli reimagined her hugely successful "Brat" in 2024. At the time, the singer had described the collaboration as "random", while expressing great admiration for the way Charli XCX had managed the enormous media exposure that came with "Brat"'s success. "I feel like fame has never hit anyone at a better time, because she's been around for a long time. She's aware of this huge moment, but she doesn't take herself too seriously, she handles it well, and she's also humble".
The San Francisco duet thus added a new chapter to the relationship between the two artists, this time on the Strokes' own turf and through one of the defining tracks of their early days.

The title of Charli's new album, "Music, Fashion, Film", comes from a line in "SS26", in which the English singer — born Charlotte Emma Aitchison — sings: "We're walking on a catwalk that leads straight to hell/ nothing will save us, not music, not fashion, not cinema". The presence of John Cale (Velvet Underground) on the already iconic black-and-white cover (which also features Martin Scorsese) is no coincidence: the two already collaborated last year on the soundtrack inspired by "Wuthering Heights". "Music, Fashion, Film" arrives after the long-running success of "BRAT", an album that has continued to draw attention well beyond its release. Over the past year Charli has also stepped up her film career as an actress and contributed to the soundtrack of the film "Mother Mary".
Over the summer the artist will likely perform the new material live at a series of major festivals, including Lollapalooza in Chicago, Outside Lands in San Francisco, and the Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK, scheduled for August.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google