At the beginning of the summer, it would’ve been a little bit hard to believe that one of the hottest LA concerts of the fall was going to be “Sweat,” co-headlined by English singer Charli XCX and Australian artist Troye Sivan.
Of course, Charli and Sivan have been popstars for years. Charli rose to fame already in 2012, when she provided featuring vocals to Icona Pop’s “I Love It.” Sivan made his first breakthrough with “Happy Little Pill” a couple of years later. However, neither one of them had experienced the superstar status that Charli has achieved since her new album released in early June.
As we all now know, her success story can be summarized in one word: brat. Written in a low resolution Arial font with a neon green background.
“Brat” is the name of Charli’s hugely successful album, but it has also been this crazy social media trend among Gen Z and millennials that has continued for months. Probably every imaginable media outlet has published articles about what being “brat” means and why neon green is seemingly everywhere. Most of them have probably ended up quoting the answer Charli gave on her social media account.
“You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things some times. Who feels like herself but maybe also has a breakdown. But kind of like parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”
If the ‘brat’ phenomenon wasn’t already big enough, it sure was after Charli announced in July through her X account that “kamala IS brat.” Vice president Kamala Harris’ campaign team took full advantage of the meme.
For Charli XCX’s career, these turn of events are interesting. “Brat” was her sixth studio album and it finally made her a popstar everyone knows. As Variety wrote, “ironically, for Charli, her trajectory over the past four months has buoyed her to the exact level of pop stardom she’s consistently satirized.”
In mid-October, Inglewood, California was brat for two nights. A couple of blocks before the Kia Forum’s parking lot you could see an endless number of neon green t-shirts, tops, hoodies, skirts, pants, shoes, caps and so on. Most of the audience seemed to be women in their twenties or early thirties – people like the friendly young woman who stood in front of me in a line and wanted to know if her exposed thongs looked hot enough. That’s brat, very 90s, but brat.
However, it was nice to see that brat is a trend that also appeals to people like me, men in their thirties. I saw multiple male couples and friend groups with neon green shirts enjoying the extended brat summer.
At times it has felt like the brat phenomenon is so huge that people miss the point of how excellent the album itself is.
With that in mind, I have to make it clear: Charli’s and Sivan’s “Sweat” concert was maybe the best arena-sized party I’ve ever attended. The concert lasted one hour and fifty minutes and was one the most intense shows I’ve seen. There were no breaks, no filler songs and no interludes. The pace was furious from start to finish. The crowd jumped, sweat, waved their hands and screamed so loud that it’s hard to remember when was the last time I have experienced the same kind of mania.
There was no need for interludes because the show was split between the two headliners: Sivan started the show with his three songs, then Charli performed three of hers, then it was time to change shifts again and this went on until the end of the concert.
In total there were 31 songs, 16 of them were Charli’s, 13 Sivan’s and 3 were performed together. Dividing the show between two artists made it possible that basically each song was a smash hit. The crowd’s reaction to almost every song was passionate screaming.
The majority of Charli’s tracks were from “Brat;” obviously. The album is full of danceable songs centered around important themes (like “Apple,”; “Sympathy Is a Knife” and “Girl, So Confusing”) that it needs to be considered as the best pop album of 2024.
And although it was clear that most of the attention was focused on Charli, Troye Sivan was as important to the success of the show as she was. The chemistry between the two popstars was great.
A special shoutout needs to be given to Sivan’s dancers and choreographer, Sergio Reis. The sexual dance show during Sivan’s songs was brilliantly conceived and superbly executed.
The only criticism I have is about a theme that has been debated in the music industry for a long time: does live mean live? Charli has been the first to admit that nowadays she completely relies on Auto-Tune (a software that corrects pitch) during her live performances. “Brat” is a great example of how Auto-Tune is nowadays used creatively to produce great pop songs. There’s nothing wrong with that, but shouldn’t artists be able to actually sing their songs while performing live? Artists like Ed Sheeran and Ellie Goulding think so. They’ve been part of the “Live Means Live” campaign.
On the other hand, Charli XCX said on “Tape Notes Podcast” that she can no longer sing without Auto-Tune.
“You really, really get lazy because you can relax into a note rather than being super on. And I mean, there are some amazingly technical singers who do sing with Auto-Tune who are still pitch-perfect, but that’s not me. Like, I drink and I smoke and I use autotune, those three things,” said Charli.
Using real time Auto-Tune on stage is one thing. Relying on backing tracks so heavily that at some moments the audience just watched Charli or Sivan party on the stage while their vocals were playing in the background is another. To me, it made a few moments of the otherwise great experience boring.
Then again, maybe I’m not just brat enough to understand that part of their art.