Lorde, Charli XCX’s viral moment and the truth about friendship breakups

Charli XCX’s sixth studio album, "BRAT," has been nearly inescapable since its release on June 7. Murals have gone up in Brooklyn, viral audio clips have flooded TikTok and even iced matcha — or anything lime green — has come to represent “brat summer.” 

"BRAT" embraces a hot-mess pop star aesthetic, prioritizing club culture at its core but still offering introspective lyrics on aging, womanhood, grief and anxiety. The track “Girl, so confusing” grabbed listener’s attention for its hyper-specific and accusatory lyrics: “People say we're alike / They say we've got the same hair / We talk about making music but I don't know if it's honest / Can't tell if you wanna see me falling over and failing.”

Fans began speculating about a friendship feud between the 31-year-old artist and “Royals” singer Lorde. The pair confronted the rumors head-on by dropping a remix just two weeks later with the iconic lyric: “Let’s work it out on the remix.”

“Girl, so confusing version with Lorde” has fans in tears over the harsh reality of friendship breakups and miscommunications. Experts say these falling outs are more common than we think, but can often be mended with open communication. 

What happened between Lorde and Charli XCX, and why do we care?

Despite their differing styles of pop music, the pair have often been compared to one another, with Charli XCX even being mistaken for Lorde in a now infamous interview. 

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Charli admitted that she was jealous of Lorde’s success with “Royals” in 2013. 

"She had big hair; I had big hair. She wore black lipstick; I once wore black lipstick. You create these parallels and think, 'Well, that could have been me,'” she said. “I think you just read what you want into it because you're feeling insecure about your own work."

On “Girl, so confusing,” Charli is completely unfiltered. “I don't know if you like me / Sometimes I think you might hate me / Sometimes I think I might hate you,” she sings. 

Lorde, however, was “speechless” when Charli declared these insecurities. On the remix, she confesses that her struggles with body image and disordered eating caused her to isolate from her friends. “I was so lost in my head and scared to be in your pictures / I was trapped in the hatred / And your life seemed so awesome / I never thought for a second my voice was in your head,” she sings.

Through honest confrontation, Lorde is able to end the track with an affirmation of their friendship: “I’m glad I know how you feel, ‘cause I ride for you Charli.”

Therapist Molly Zive says that seeing a celebrity you admire being open about their struggles can humanize the issue and inspire important conversations. 

“The fact that they're able to come together and create art together in a way that's able to articulate the way probably a lot of us feel is really powerful,” Zive says. 

What causes friendship breakups? 

Friendship breakups can be even more traumatic than the breakup of a romantic relationship, says therapist and author Stephanie Sarkis. 

They can be sparked by miscommunications like making assumptions about a friend’s feelings or intentions without directly addressing each other, or can stem from past trauma and existing mental health struggles, according to Sarkis. 

“We truly don’t know what people are going through,” she says. “Depression and anxiety (can) make you feel like you're a burden to other people, and that's isolating. So when someone's isolating, they may not even reach out to their closest friends.”

Therapist Erik Anderson says people can also create an “inaccurate story” when they avoid open communication with their friends and assume they are being “broken up with” by a friend.

“'I think 'they broke up with me' may be more upsetting than an alternative version of events, like maybe they’re going through their own thing and just don’t want to hang out as much as I do right now,” he says. “Even if we don't talk to someone for a while, that doesn't necessarily mean we're being broken up with.”

How to reconcile friendships after miscommunications

Zive says listeners can learn from the singers’ courage in bravely expressing their feelings. 

“A lot of people are scared to have those difficult, messy conversations, especially in their friendships,” she says. “I feel like that's not modeled for us in healthy ways, and so (Charli and Lorde) are modeling it for us, which is really cool.”

She recommends sharing negative feelings with your friends directly and calmly, while also leaving room for them to share their viewpoint.

“Don’t be afraid to say, ‘Things are changing, what's your perspective of it?’” she says. “These relationships need maintenance.”

Sarkis also says to embrace the awkwardness of these conversations, and that reconciliation doesn’t have to be a “grand gesture.” 

“It's important just to check on each other and (ask) what is going on instead of assuming what the other person is thinking,” she says. “That can be awkward, but it can be better to reach out and get clarification than just guess.”

How to grieve a friendship

Still, not all friendships are worth salvaging, Zive cautions. If a friend doesn’t make you feel good or if they overstep your boundaries, it might not be a friendship worth your time. 

If you communicate your feelings and nothing changes, “it’s totally OK to move on from something that feels harmful or hurtful,” she says. 

Signs to look for that a friend isn’t worth reconnecting with is if you often feel confused or angry around them, or if your friend doesn’t have your best interest in mind, according to Sarkis. 

Anderson says it’s important to keep in mind that a friend may not want to reconnect, and you have to be OK with walking away. 

“It's possible you can lose a friend and get no explanation,” he says. “You don't have the right to everyone else's thoughts and feelings.”

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Other friendships may grow apart naturally. 

“Some friendships are made to just be present for a short period of time. So if your relationship doesn't get back together, you can always find other people that you might connect better with,” Sarkis says. “It doesn't mean that either of you failed. It means that sometimes people just go their different ways.”