Charli XCX set off a firestorm of social media engagement and street cred of sorts for Kamala Harris by tweeting just three words last month—but the star told Vulture that she hadn’t put much thought into it.
“I obviously knew what I was doing,” the British pop star told the site, though she didn’t know she’d be influencing the campaign, as she’d only meant the tweet as “something positive and lighthearted.”
For context, according to the singer, a “brat” is a “very honest” and sometimes messy party girl. Her album of the same name has spawned thousands of Gen Z memes and led to many people declaring that they’re having a “brat summer.”
Not long after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination, Charli posted “kamala IS brat,” to her X/Twitter account. “To be on the right side of democracy, the right side of women’s rights, is hugely important to me,” she explained to the site as her reasoning for supporting Harris’ candidacy.
But she didn’t foresee the enormous response. The star said she’d uploaded the brief tweet while lounging in her pool, waiting for her fiancé to finish making their lunch. The laissez-faire moment from the normally apolitical star (“I’m not Bob Dylan, and I’ve never pretended to be,” she said) led to 55 million views and a huge embrace from Harris’ camp, which has shown an affinity so far for engaging young would-be voters on social media.
Soon after Charli’s tweet, they’d reconfigured Harris’ “Welcome to Kamala HQ” graphic in the style of her brat album.
The association between Charli’s album with Harris’ campaign grew rapidly, and by the time the DNC came around, the Dems were selling tees and hats embroidered with the word “demo(B)rat.”
“Did I think me talking about being a messy b—h and, like, partying and needing a Bic lighter and a pack of Marlboro Lights would end up on CNN? No,” Charli told Vulture.
It became so hard to speak of Harris’ campaign without mentioning the word “brat” that political pundits were picking it apart on air. Vulture points out that Fox News aired at least one contributor using the term to critique Democrats’ stances on issues, while CNN’s Jake Tapper offered a cringe-worthy admission that he “aspired to be brat” during an on-air discussion.
Though her tweet won’t lead to any political activism on her part, Charli stands behind her support for Harris. “I’m happy to help to prevent democracy from failing forever,” she said, though she added, “My music is not political.” And as a Brit, she’s unable to vote in the election.
