In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Charli XCX admits that she was "super jealous" of the success Lorde achieved with her debut single "Royals."
In the feature titled "The Anatomy Of A (3-D) Female Pop Star," the UK pop star discusses how the music industry pins female musicians against each other, expecting them to feel jealousy and resentment.
“Being jealous is somehow wrongly equated to not supporting women or not being a girl’s girl, which isn’t true,” she tells Rolling Stone. “You can, I think, experience envy and still be a good person who champions other women. Jealousy is just not a very sexy feeling, or a sexy characteristic really, is it?”
When asked what musician she would most be jealous of, Charli says it's her friend Lorde. The two have a long-standing association after Charli was mistaken for Lorde ten years ago during an interview. Asked about her song "Royals," Charli played along in a clip that has since become a fan favourite meme. Since then, Charli has jokingly claimed to have ghostwritten Lorde's hit and even claimed to be her at times , while fans continue to request "Royals" at Charli XCX concerts.
“When ‘Royals’ came out, I was super jealous of the success that that song got, and that Ella got,” Charli says. “You piece all this stuff together in your brain, like: ‘She was into my music. She had big hair; I had big hair. She wore black lipstick; I once wore black lipstick.’ You create these parallels and think, ‘Well, that could have been me.’ But it couldn’t have because we’re completely different people."
Charli admits she didn't personally hear a similarity between their music, but the confusion made her question her own level of success.
“I wasn’t making music that sounded anything like ‘Royals’,” she continues. “I think you just read what you want into it because you’re feeling insecure about your own work.”
She adds that the two of them have since become friends, saying, “You get over it and then you try to figure out all the things that are unique about you and you pursue that, and then probably in five months’ time you have a breakdown about something else.”
In fact, two years ago, they had agreed to dress up as each other for Halloween, Charli told the NME. "I didn’t want it to seem like I was trolling, so I actually texted Lorde. And I was like, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about being you for Halloween, it’s all a good vibe, how do you feel about it?’” she said, laughing. “And she was like, ‘Yeah, great. I’ll just be you.’"