Lorde Says She Felt 'Misunderstood' by Charli xcx's 'Girl, So Confusing'

Charli xcx and Lorde's friendship isn't "so confusing" anymore.

After the two musicians recently teamed up for a remix of Charli's vulnerable Brat album track "Girl, So Confusing" about their complicated relationship, they opened up to Billboard about how the collaboration came together in a new cover story focused on the British pop star.

The original track sees Charli, 31, wondering how another musician — later confirmed to be Lorde, 27 — truly feels about her despite both of them claiming to be friends. One day before its Friday, June 7 release on Brat, she decided to inform the "Royals" singer of its subject matter.

"I had to go through the process of telling her that this song is about her and her being OK with that first," Charli told the outlet. "I was trying to meet up with her for almost a year, and we kept having this weird, like, we were [going to], then we wouldn’t. It spoke to the narrative of the song itself. In the end, it didn’t work out."

She explained, "Then the day before the record came out, I left her a voice note. [Lorde] replied straight away and was like, ‘Oh, my God, I had no idea you felt this way. I’m so sorry.’ And then was like, ‘You know, maybe I should be on a version of the song.’ I didn’t even ask her. She brought it up."

Charli further detailed that while "so much" of the Brat promotional campaign was meticulously thought out, "sometimes it was not" — and "Lorde’s remix of ‘Girl, so confusing’ is a perfect example," she said of the duet, released Friday, June 21. "That wasn’t planned. It took three days total."

Upon hearing the original song, Lorde felt a "two-part thing of both deep empathy for my friend and this feeling of ‘Man, I’ve been misunderstood, and I really want to make it right,'" she told Billboard. The Grammy winner sent her conversational remix verse to Charli shortly before attending her Tuesday, June 11 concert at New York City's Brooklyn Paramount.

"When I was listening to [Lorde’s] verse for the first time, I was backstage at the show," recalled Charli. "My hair stylist also does her hair. He had also just done her hair for the show, too, so he was just with her, and then he came to me and was like, ‘I’m so happy you guys are good.’"

Lorde explained that writing her part of the "Girl, So Confusing" remix marked the "first time" she'd opened up to Charli about the reasons she'd seemingly pulled away from their friendship.

"There was such a rawness and an immediacy to what I was saying. I love that we truly did work it out on the remix," she said. "There’s something very brat about that, something very meta and modern. Only Charli could make that happen."

The "Green Light" performer continued, "She had opened up a channel between us, and it made me say things that I had never said. I was articulating things I’d never said or maybe even things I’ve never even heard said. This whole thing has been such a huge honor."

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