Charli xcx, The O2, London review • DIY Magazine

Even at tube stations in North London, miles from tonight’s O2 Arena venue, it’s impossible to miss the neon green-clad, shade-donning, canned cocktail-clutching hoards making the pilgrimage to North Greenwich - what is, for one night, the world epicentre of pop music. The level of audience effort is equivalent only to what we’ve seen this year for the Eras tour; in place of friendship bracelets, though, this crowd are exchanging cigarettes and sunnies. It’s the pinnacle of a movement that’s spawned think-pieces, fashion edits, and a whole new dictionary definition. Make no mistake: since the release of her cultural juggernaut of a sixth album, a Charli xcx show is as much about the fans - and the wider mythos of ‘BRAT’ - as it is the woman herself.

That being said, what follows is nothing short of a scene-stealing masterclass in performance and artistic power. The ubiquitous green accents are enough to confirm that really, every one of the 20,000 people here was sold long before we even stepped foot in the dome, but the way Charli commands the space - a handheld mic and one hell of an attitude the sole conduits for her immense presence - is enough to permanently put to bed any lingering doubts that she is 2024’s most significant artist.

Throughout the 26-track setlist, there are brief moments where her untouchable, unfuckwithable club kid demeanour slips - only slightly - and we get a glimpse of the sheer joy the crowd’s fervour is bringing her. “We’re the queens of London Shy!” she squeals, grinning at her contemporary and collaborator Shygirl as they strut across the stage’s expanse during opener ‘365’; “I’ll never forget this moment,” she admits later, soaking up an atmosphere that rarely dips below full-throttle feral.

With a discography so stacked with hits as hers, each number is a highlight in and of itself. We get the remix versions of ‘Girl, so confusing’ and ‘Guess’, featuring the Lorde and Billie Eilish verses in all their internet-breaking glory; we get George Daniel (producer, The 1975 drummer, and Charli’s boyfriend) FINALLY doing the viral ‘Apple’ dance; we get multiple outfit changes, a roof-raising rendition of 2012 banger ‘I Love It’, and the frankly miraculous feat of transforming an undeniably soulless venue into an endorphin-filled club that’s positively thrumming with life.

Rather than heightening the distance between performer and audience via elaborate staging (save for an elevating scaffold and a rain-making overhead, under which she makes Sabrina Carpenter’s on-stage antics look positively PG), Charli instead opts to boot down any semblance of a fourth wall with her heeled size fives. Playing up to the 360° camera and shimmying before the ‘PARTY’-emblazoned, intentionally amateur backdrop, she cultivates the feeling that we really are all just accompanying her on the world’s best night out.

The key to ‘BRAT’’s excellence is the way this playful depravity sits alongside moments of genuine poignance, and tonight she marries the two spectacularly by running her moving rendition of ‘So I’ - a track dedicated to the late, great, SOPHIE - directly into its remixed counterpart, channelling the grief of losing a loved one into a triumphant celebration of their life. The only thing missing here is ‘I think about it all the time’ - perhaps the album’s most visceral moment, it encapsulates everything that makes ‘BRAT’ such an interesting, irresistible proposition.

We can forgive Charli this one omission, though, as tonight’s extended, eight-song encore is truly the gift that keeps on giving, a dizzyingly brilliant testament to her ability to not only capture the zeitgeist, but shape it herself. Given her stacked little black book of contacts, the question of her bringing out a special guest was not so much if, but who; few people, though, will have anticipated the roll-call of Caroline Polachek, Yung Lean, Robyn, and a returning Shygirl - a lineup that lands like a storming who’s who of 21st century pop innovators.

Polachek and Charli’s duet of the former’s ‘Welcome To My Island’ feels like a baton-passing of sorts, the woman behind last year’s best album joining forces with the auteur of this one’s. Robyn stepping forward to perform her evergreen hit ‘Dancing On My Own’, meanwhile, is a late in the day contender for musical moment of the year: from the second the crowd catches the unmistakable fizz of those opening bars, it’s all-encompassing, wall-to-wall euphoria.

For an artist to occupy such a prominent position at the very forefront of public consciousness is one thing; for them to make good on that promise of excellence is quite another. Charli xcx cemented her place in pop’s history book long ago; tonight, she proves that she's the one writing its next chapter.