On June 7, 2024, Charli XCX released her album Brat, changing her career and pop culture in the process. She paid tribute to the moment on Instagram Sunday, posting photos of billboards in Brat‘s signature acid green with the word “forever.”
“forever <3 happy 365 days of brat,” she captioned the post.
While Charli first scored U.S. success as a songwriter in 2012 with Icona Pop‘s “I Love It” and as a singer in 2014 with “Fancy” and “Boom Clap,” Brat made her a global superstar. She first built hype for the project with pop-up shows, and the singles “Von dutch” and “360,” the latter featuring a now-iconic “It girl”-crammed video.
Brat debuted at #3, amid discussions about Charli’s relationships with Lorde — documented in “Girl, so confusing” — and Taylor Swift, allegedly the subject of “Sympathy is a knife.” But Brat summer really took off when Charli wrote on social platform X, “Kamala IS brat.”
Though Charli is British and couldn’t vote in the U.S. presidential election, Kamala Harris‘ campaign leaned all the way into the moment, changing its social media profile banners to match the Brat font and color.
Charli then kept the project going with Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, a new version of the album that featured guest appearances by Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Lorde and more.
The Sweat tour and the Brat Tour followed, as well as three Grammy wins; appearances on Saturday Night Live and at Coachella; and a slew of upcoming movie projects. And now that Charli’s older songs are coming to the forefront, like her 2020 track “party 4 u,” it seems Brat summer may never be truly over.
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