Charli xcx is giving fans a deeper look inside the creative vision behind her MUSIC, FASHION, FILM TOUR, and after seeing the show twice myself, I can confidently say it: this is her best tour… ever.
The show is unlike anything Charli has done before. It’s cinematic, raw, dark, physical and completely committed to the world of Music, Fashion, Film, while still incorporating plenty of Brat. And as Charli explained in a new interview with Billboard, that’s very intentional.
The tour first came to life when Charli headlined Chicago’s Lollapalooza, meaning she had to introduce this completely new production in front of one massive festival audience.
When asked how intimidating that was, Charli explained: “I think there’s that sort of inner battle to fight this voice of what people might want from you versus the kind of artistic vision of what’s true to the album, and luckily that voice never got too loud.”
That mindset has continued throughout the tour. Rather than building a show around what she thinks audiences expect from her, especially after the massive cultural moment that was Brat, Charli’s staying committed to the art she wants to make now.
“I’m not really performing to please anyone other than myself,” she told Billboard, “which is maybe not the attitude that everybody takes, but that’s the attitude that I take.”
And honestly? That’s exactly why this tour works.
MAKING ‘MUSIC, FASHION, FILM’ FEEL LIKE A MOVIE
Even the name tells you this isn’t supposed to feel like a traditional pop concert.
When Billboard asked how touring allows Charli to express her creativity differently than working inside a studio, she pointed directly to the cinematic nature of the production.
“For this show in particular, we really wanted to make things feel as cinematic as we possibly could, whilst obviously understanding the parameters of being in an arena.”
If you’ve experienced the show in person, you know exactly what she means. The staging, lighting, pyro, movement and visuals aren’t simply there to accompany the songs, they all feel like pieces of the same larger world.
And despite Music, Fashion, Film featuring cultural heavyweights John Cale, Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorsese in its artwork, Charli revealed that she didn’t really look toward other musicians or tours when developing the live show’s creative direction.
“It wasn’t really tours. It was more, like, different tableaux, different paintings. Like, Caravaggio paintings have always been quite important to me. There’s like a real rawness to them. The way that he’s using kind of untraditional models to paint real people.”
Charli also cited actress Béatrice Dalle and her strength as an influence on the energy of the performance, before making a somewhat surprising admission: “I don’t actually go to that many live shows to be honest.”
Maybe that’s part of what makes this one feel so different. Instead of looking around at what everybody else is doing on tour, Charli built her own world.
‘OBLIVION IS FREEDOM’
One of the most memorable recurring elements of the show is the phrase “oblivion is freedom,” taken from the David Cronenberg monologue that closes Music, Fashion, Film.
When Billboard asked why that particular line became such an important part of the live production, Charli gave perhaps the best explanation of the entire tour:
“It’s the part that’s most related to how I feel about performance, for better and worse. For me, performing live is very physical, sometimes very painful. I just have to throw myself into it and lose my inhibitions and almost enter another state — which might sound pretentious to some people, but whatever.”
She continued, “I have to lose myself to be able to feel free onstage, and so ‘oblivion is freedom’ was the perfect thing to pepper across the live show, because it’s genuinely how I feel when I perform and it’s the mission statement of the album, in a way. Destroying what is comfortable and what you know can sometimes lead to this new creative freedom.”
And after seeing this tour twice, that explanation makes SO much sense.
There’s moments during the show where it genuinely feels like Charli has completely disappeared into the performance. It’s not about hitting a mark, smiling for the audience and moving onto the next song. There’s a physicality and intensity to it that you can feel from the crowd.
HER BEST TOUR YET
I’ve been lucky enough to see Charli perform multiple times over the years, and MUSIC, FASHION, FILM is the best she’s ever been.
It’s cunt. It’s sexy. It’s aggressive. It’s beautiful. It’s unpredictable. Most importantly, it feels like Charli made exactly the show she wanted to make rather than trying to satisfy what everyone else thinks a Charli xcx arena tour should look like.
The North American leg concludes in Las Vegas on October 23 before MUSIC, FASHION, FILM heads to Europe in February. Charli said it best herself: “I’m not really performing to please anyone other than myself.”
After seeing the result twice? Please don’t start trying to please us now, Charli. Keep doing exactly that.
