Charli XCX, born Charlotte Emma Aitchison on 2 August 1992, is an English singer-songwriter. Her debut album, True Romance, was released in April of 2013.
Charli’s career began at the age of 14. During the day she’d be at school - she loved art, hated music - and afterwards she’d write songs and produce raw demos in the bedroom of her parents’ house. By night, she’d be in London, UK in a “colourful, glittery world that didn’t really mean that much, but never claimed to either”.
In 2006, when Charli was 14 she organised her live performances through MySpace and regaled crowds with “nursery rhyme-esque rap pieces with me shouting ‘DINOSAUR SEX!’ while standing on a crate in a warehouse”. As a live promoter her dad had, once upon a time, booked acts like Bob Marley and Siouxsie & The Banshees at his club nights, but even he couldn’t prepare Charli for the parties she found herself performing at. She started performing such material as “Chas’s Song” from her debut, but later grew discontent with such music and wrote new songs, like the aforementioned “Dinosaur Sex!” and “I Wanna Be Darth Vader”.
Soon songs called things like ‘Art Bitch’ and (in reference to a friend of hers from school) ‘!Franchesckaar!’, created quite a buzz even extensively soundtracking catwalk shows in London and New York for the likes of Marc Jacobs and Victoria’s Secret For Interview magazine, she was photographed by David Bailey. These were exciting times, and then… she’ll admit it now - she just hadn’t found the aesthetic she was content with yet.
