Perhaps out of all the things to happen in the (almost) year since Brat came out, the thing that Charli XCX least expected (apart from Kamala not winning) was a five-year-old non-single called “party 4 u” to go viral. As track nine from her 2020 “lockdown album,” How I’m Feeling Now, it seemed like it was destined to remain a proverbial “deep cut” in her oeuvre. Even after all that went into finally getting it to see the light of day in the first place (and, as we know, the light of day can be quite cruelly blinding to a party girl like “party 4 u”). However, thanks to the input and urging of OG Angels, “party 4 u” made the cut, and its journey has remained epic ever since.
It was earlier this year when “Gay TikTok” started to give the song new life thanks to a clip of Coco Montrese lip-syncing for her life to Paula Abdul’s “Cold Hearted,” pointing braggadociously to her lips during the speedily-delivered bridge, “How come, how come, he can, he can tell-a, tell-a, you’re-a, you’re-a/Always, always number, number one without a doubt/When-a, when-a he is, he is, always, always squirmin’, squirmin’ (no, no, give, give, all, all, take, take)/Like a little snake under-a every-a rock?/You’ve been, you’ve been workin’, workin’ on the, on the love (one, one, smooth, smooth, sharp, sharp, tongue, tongue)/And he’s been only, only playing undercover all the while/Take a, take another, ‘nother look into his eyes (he, he, just, just, talks, talks)/And you will only see a reptile.”
Obviously, what would have been an otherwise esoteric instant easily translates to working for XCX’s own sped-up “party 4 u” verse, “You could watch me pull up on your body/Like it’s summer, take my clothes off In the water, splash around and get you blessed by holy water/I don’t know what you were waiting for/You know that I’ve been waiting for you/I only threw this party for you/Yeah, if you saw my tears, would you touch me?/Kiss me on the mouth, say you love me?/Leave a message, tell me you’re sorry?/Hit me right back, hit me right back/Why you treating me like someone that you never loved?” And, needless to say, this pop culture “mash-up” is only something that Gay TikTok could 1) create and 2) propel into the mainstream of virality.
XCX, well-aware that the bulk of her die-hard fan base consists of gay men, wasn’t one to let such a gift go unnoticed, not only calling the song’s sudden rise to number eighty on Spotify’s Viral 100 chart “p crazy,” but also billing “party 4 u” as a “cutie,” with the additional mention of knowing that “this song means so much to so many angels.” And with that knowledge, XCX did not waste a perfectly good opportunity to pay proper tribute to the track with a music video, itself honoring the five-year anniversary of the album “party 4 u” first appeared on.
Directed by Mitch Ryan (an Addison Rae favorite of late, if “High Fashion” and “Headphones On” are anything to go by), the video begins in the aftermath of a party that was clearly a rager. The detritus of the night and early morning sprinkled throughout the house that looks very much as though it’s modeled after the Beachwood Canyon abode that Charli so often threw parties in. Outfitted in an 80s-inspired polka dot party dress (let’s just say Molly Ringwald wouldn’t have been opposed to wearing it in a John Hughes movie), Charli ambles sadly through the wreckage, shoving a few “essentials” (read: Brat essentials) into her purse and then approaching the mirror to look at herself in it. Putting her sunglasses on, Charli immediately embodies the Brat persona she’s been carrying with her for the past year.
Walking through the balloon-filled hallway and out into the harsh light of the mid-morning, Charli stumbles down the road, set against a desolate, isolated, desert-like backdrop that’s typical of many California milieus. It doesn’t take long for a downtrodden, utterly dejected XCX to remove her heels (almost Mentos commercial-style) and heave herself to the ground so that she can empty her purse of its very Brat contents: a pack of Parliaments, a lighter, loose change, a random card that says “Mexico City” on it and her iPhone with wired headphones wound around it. Lighting one of the cigs, Charli sits on the ground contemplatively for a bit, wondering where it all went wrong. Likely thinking that, if she had just done this or that to make the party even more alluring, maybe he would have come. The “he” in question originally being Mike Kerr of Royal Blood, who Charli was dating at the time “party 4 u” was first written. And, as though to make sure fans could be certain to pick up on that, she mentions his “19th of June” birthday (a very Taylor Swift thing to do). But really, what did she expect from a Gemini?
Apparently, much more than he was willing to give. So it is that, in addition to conjuring up all those old feelings of inadequacy related to this dude, Charli also invokes the new feelings of inadequacy related to measuring up to the impossible pressure to now somehow “top” the success of Brat. And rather than hinting at any new music for another studio album, XCX continues to keep throwing the party that is her Brat Tour in order to please fans both new and old. As she continues to walk down the pastoral (read: shitkicker) road smoking her cigarette, she tries to stave off the overall “icky” feeling she has about the night before—and things not going at all how she envisioned. Thus, she proceeds to remove her dress, almost as if it’s too painful a reminder to keep wearing.
And so, while dressed in nothing more than her bra and underwear, XCX ends up in front of a billboard of her own image, prostrating herself before it. Intercut scenes then show XCX back in the house at night alone, writhing around on the floor as silver confetti falls from the ceiling and a strobe light gives the look an even more depressing rather than “fun” vibe. Indeed, these flashes add an underlying message to the video. One that suggests XCX is asking: what if I end up all alone at this party? The seemingly nonstop party that is her Brat era. For Charli has made no secret about her fear of staying too long at said party, of becoming “overexposed.” Even while stating that she’s interested in the “tension” of lingering past the moment when her own is supposed to be up. When she’s supposed to make way for someone else’s summer (like Lorde’s or Haim’s or Addison Rae’s—all names she emblazoned on the screen behind her during her Coachella set…though not MARINA’s or Lana Del Rey’s).
So it is that she storms right up to the billboard, climbs the ladder to reach it and starts tearing it apart, peeling the paper back and throwing black paint over it. This is already an immediate demonstration of her extreme self-loathing in the wake of such a profound form of rejection. And yet, another not-so-subliminal meaning is that Charli is growing sick of her own damn self after so much media exposure in the past year. Perhaps feeling some vague sense of imposter syndrome, or as though maybe she would like to return to the fringe where she truly “belongs.”
Not content to simply tear the billboard up and tarnish it with paint, Charli sets fire to it (in a maneuver that echoes Lana Del Rey feigning a house fire during a portion of her Stagecoach set a.k.a. totally ignoring the PTSD many Southern Californians still have from the wildfires that kicked off 2025 for them). An intense manifestation of her self-hatred (for no amount of fame and success can quell the rejection “party 4 u” Charli still feels from being stood up), it’s a powerful image to see XCX walk away from her burning effigy dressed in a look that also makes her appear decidedly Crash. Further confirming that Charli is her own favorite reference as well.
Sitting on an abandoned couch and smoking another cigarette as it burns behind her, the video concludes with Charli hearing the sound of an audience cheering her while she’s onstage. Yet another indication that, for Charli, this song has taken on an entirely new meaning. One that infers she’s more afraid than ever of throwing a party 4 “u” (in this instance, the masses), only to find that no one is interested in showing up anymore. That she had her “moment” in the Brat sun and now it’s gone. Because that’s the thing about parties (as Charli knows better than anyone): they always have to end, sooner or later. But if anyone can make it later, it’s Charli.
