Charli xcx opened up about her struggles as a mixed-race woman and the inspiration behind her record-breaking album Brat.
In a recent conversation with Swedish rapper Yung Lean for Dazed magazineIn the Winter 2025 issue, the 33-year-old singer, whose father is Scottish and mother Indian, poured out her heart about her experiences as a mixed-race woman and musician.
Charli, who grew up in England, admitted that it is normal for her to feel like an outsider.
“I never felt accepted where I went, whether it was at school because I was half Indian and not blonde, or because I couldn’t fully relate to my Indian self because I was half white,” the singer began. “There was this weird, displaced feeling, where I couldn’t fit in either place.”
The 365 singer, whose real name is Charlotte Aitchison, continued: “Then with music, being outside the mainstream and wanting to be in that world but also really wanting to reject it. It created this concoction that made me [make Brat]she continued.
“I feel like I was very scared. Actually, not since 2016, but before that I was very scared,” she added.
Although Charli’s parents, Jon and Shameera Aitchison, are her biggest supporters, she has spoken out about the challenges of growing up with parents of different races.
“When I went to visit my mother’s family, I felt very Indian. It was all classic scenes of my nani and bappa cooking with Bollywood movies in the background and everyone speaking in Gujarati,” she told Vogue Singapore in 2024.
“But then I went home to this other world, which was mostly white. It was almost like I only experienced the Indian part of my identity on the weekends. I never really felt like I fit into either world, which I think often happens with mixed-race kids,” she added at the time.
