On “Girl, So Confusing,” Charli xcx and Lorde worked it out on the remix — and at Lollapalooza 2026, they worked it out on the stage.
After making a cameo at the New Zealand native’s headlining set in Chicago on Thursday (July 30), Charli shared a post on Instagram commemorating the surprise duet, writing, “the more we do this the more special it feels <3”
“love you ella,” she continued, captioning photos of herself and Lorde backstage at the festival and performing the Brat remix track. “congrats on headlining and ty for bringing me out!!!! ps i headline lolla tonight… im excited ;)”
In the comments, Lorde wrote, “Take care of it tn”
“U the f–kin one,” the “Royals” singer added.
Though the collaboration disrupted the internet when it dropped in 2024, Charli and Lorde have only sung it together live a handful of times. The two gave the remix its live debut at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in September 2024, when Charli brought out Lorde during her co-headlining show with Troye Sivan. When the British dance-pop star performed it at Coachella in 2025, Lorde joined her in the desert to assist, later inviting Charli to sing it with her during an Ultrasound World Tour stop in Los Angeles.
The two women’s ability to perform the “Girl, So Confusing” remix speaks to how far they’ve come since they first teamed up on the song. In her 2024 Billboard cover story, Charli told senior writer Kristin Robinson that she originally penned it about ambiguous, unspoken tension she felt with Lorde.
“Then the day before the record came out, I left her a voice note,” Charli said at the time. “[Lorde] replied straight away and was like, ‘Oh, my God, I had no idea you felt this way. I’m so sorry.’ And then was like, ‘You know, maybe I should be on a version of the song.’ I didn’t even ask her. She brought it up.”
“I love that we truly did work it out on the remix,” Lorde added in the same article. “Only Charli could make that happen. She had opened up a channel between us, and it made me say things that I had never said.”
As Charli noted in her post, she will now take the baton from Lorde and headline night two of this year’s Lolla on Friday (July 31), following sets from Zara Larsson, Lil Uzi Vert, Yungblud, Mustard and more. The festival goes all weekend, featuring respective night three and night four headliners Olivia Dean and Tate McRae.
Charli is fresh off the release of her new album, Music, Fashion, Film, which dropped July 24. Lorde’s most recent LP, Virgin, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 last year.
