Charli XCX made surprise appearance during The Strokes’ set at Outside Lands on August 8, NME shared. The Brat and Music, Fashion, Film singer headlined the festival the night before and surprised fans by joining The Strokes for live rendition of “Take It Or Leave It,” the closing track from The Strokes’ classic 2001 debut album Is This It. Midway through their set, NME reports, Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas introduced Charli XCX, calling her “superstar.” He joked about the fact that they both released albums on July 24 and hers outperformed. “You’re the queen of album sales,” he told Charli, bowing jokingly. “She won—won by a lot. She’s a giant pop star in our defense.” The two went on to share vocals on “Take It Or Leave It.” Watch fan footage below.
This is not the first time the two artists have collaborated. Casablancas appeared on the remix of “Mean Girls” for Charli’s 2024 remix album Brat And It’s Completely Different But Also Still Brat. Casablancas described the collaboration as “serendipitous” and also spoke about his admiration for the way Charli dealt with her fame after the 2024 Brat Summer. “I feel like fame has never hit someone at a better time, ’cause she’s been around a long time,” he said. “She’s aware of the moment, this huge social moment, but also not taking herself too seriously, she handles it well, but also is humble[…] She was so cool.”
Charli has also spoken about her love of The Strokes, describing them as a dance band. “It’s like you talk about New York downtown, it’s like people were partying then and really in a hardcore way, and so I think he of all people understands how to capture that kind of an energy in a room and on the songs. It was definitely crazy pulling that all together,” she said.
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