“You get to feel special, but you also have to at points feel embarrassed by how stupid the whole thing is"
By Laura Molloy 22nd November 2025
Charli XCX live at Glastonbury 2025. Credit: Derek Bremner for NME
Charli XCX has shared a new newsletter where she outlines the reality of life as a pop star.
- READ MORE: Charli XCX – ‘Brat’ review: pop pioneer fully embraces the dancefloor
The singer took to her Substack yesterday (November 21) to share her thoughts on being an entertainer, writing: “Being a pop star has its pros and cons like most jobs in this world, but clarifies, “I don’t view what I do as a ‘job’ and I secondly don’t really view myself as purely a pop star, I’m just using that terminology specifically for this piece of writing.”
AdvertisementShe adds that being a pop star is “really fucking fun”, highlighting benefits such as parties in a black SUV and “all that cliche shit”, meeting interesting people and “those interesting people often actually want to meet you”, getting “free shit”, and hearing Addison Rae’s ‘Diet Pepsi’ before it’s released.
“You get to feel special, but you also have to at points, feel embarrassed by how stupid the whole thing is,” she adds.
She goes on to acknowledge her fans, saying their “dedication to your work makes you feel like they will be there for you until the end of time, even though in reality they won’t,” and that performing on stage can make you “feel like a God.”
“You get to make people cry with happiness, you soundtrack their break ups, their recovery, their crazy nights out, their revenge, their love, their lives.”
Charli XCX. CREDIT: Paul Kooiker
Charli adds that the public’s perception of her as a pop star has also caused her to “think about the person I used to be compared to the person I am now.” Old friend and family members have a way of humbling you, she points out; after asking Yung Lean whether he thought she had changed, he replied via text that while she’s still the person he knew when they were younger, the “yes people” around her “blow smoke” up her ass.
Summarising, she says that there is a “level of expectation for you to be entirely truthful all the time,” and that her own favourite artists are “absolutely not role models nor would I want them to be, but maybe that’s just me.”
“I want hedonism, danger and a sense of anti establishment to come along with my artists because when I was younger I wanted to escape through them,” she adds. “To me that’s the point, that’s the drama, that’s the fun, that’s the FANTASY.”
She ends the post with a link to a Lou Reed interview from the 70s, before asking and answering: “Is it performance? Is it truth? Is it lies? Who fucking cares? In my opinion it’s just funny and cool.”
AdvertisementIt follows her debut post on Substack, where she revealed that she’s “currently feeling more inspired by film than by music” after being left “stuck, empty and barren” after her breakthrough album ‘Brat‘.
In other news, the first trailer for The Moment, a mockumentary based around her ‘Brat’ tour, was released yesterday (November 21).
The A24 film has been directed by Aidan Zamiri, and also stars Alexander Skarsgård, Rachel Sennott, Kylie Jenner and Rosanna Arquette. Charli’s central role appears to be based largely on her own experiences in the ‘Brat’ summer of 2024, with the story telling the tale of the turbulent, alienating experience of a pop star being at the centre of her first live arena tour.
It is just one of Charli’s upcoming film projects – she is also set to star in the indie drama Erupcja, the satirical thriller Sacrifice, as well as The Gallerist, opposite Natalie Portman, and I Want Your Sex with Olivia Wilde. She is also part of the queer fairytale 100 Nights Of Hero, and will be in Dakota Johnson’s directorial debut A Tree In Blue.
Earlier this month, she wrote: “I’m currently feeling more inspired by film than I am by music. I’m enjoying acting, I’m enjoying writing, I’m enjoying watching and I’m above all enjoying discovering a new craft. Those things feel really enriching and instinctual to me at the moment.”
In addition, she has also created the soundtrack album for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, which will be released on February 11. She recently shared the single ‘Chains Of Love’ from the film, as well as ‘House’, which featured The Velvet Underground’s John Cale.
As for new music, Charli has said she is “exploring a lot of stuff with strings” for her next album. “I really like to work in contrast,” she said. “I think whatever I do next will just inherently be different to ‘Brat’ because that’s what feels natural.”
