note: I wrote (most of) this article at work this week but in the end, the decision was made to kill it, not because of its subject matter but because too much of the story and context relies on Reddit posts. I haven't seen coverage of it anywhere else, though, even though this track is somehow still live on iHeartRadio as I'm writing this -- so I guess you can consider this a Cohost exclusive!
On Wednesday evening, a new 21-second Charli XCX track appeared on several streaming platforms via the Brat star’s verified accounts, including Amazon Music, Soundcloud, Tidal, and iHeartRadio. It bore the title “brat but charli works with zionists and you cissies ate it up like cvm,” with album art parodying the Brat branding and the additional kicker "...so it's not brat."
The track was soon removed from most platforms, but was still live on iHeartRadio as of this writing.1 (Just before publication on Cohost, I found that the track is also visible on the platforms KKBox and Boomplay, and search engine metadata indicates it was uploaded to Last.fm as well.) A YouTube upload of the fake track (which was uploaded to the Charli XCX "topic" page, not her official account) provided a few more clues: according to an automated song description, the track was uploaded through the music distribution service Amuse.io and attributed to the composer “dirt 3009.” In response to a request for comment, a source at Amazon Music told me on background that their systems were not hacked or breached, and that the track was uploaded through an outside distributor (I was unable to confirm if that was Amuse.io).
In its 21 seconds, an unknown person raps over Charli XCX’s “360” beat, one of the lead singles on Brat — the entirely of which became a viral hit earlier this year, inspiring the “brat summer” meme/mood/aesthetic that’s since been co-opted by the Harris/Walz campaign. It’s hard to parse all the lyrics, as most are mumbled and spoken rapidly. But the unknown performer clearly drops the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a longstanding slogan for Palestinian liberation from Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
The performer did not explicitly state which of Charli XCX’s collaborators were allegedly Zionists, but rumors and fan discourse have circulated for months prior. In June, the musician told British culture magazine The Face that her song “Mean Girls” was partly inspired by Dasha Nekrasova, cohost of the Red Scare podcast, who guested on Charli's podcast "Best Song Ever" in January 2022. Nekrasova herself later confirmed that detail, claiming that Charli sent her the track "months" before Brat’s release. On her podcast — well known among the so-called “dirtbag left,” with a forthcoming episode to feature Tucker Carlson — Nekrasova has espoused pro-Israel talking points, particularly on the show's Israel/Palestine episode "You've Gaza Be Kidding Me." Earlier this year, Nekrasova and her partner also apparently photographed themselves shooting at a plywood dummy that they had dressed up as a racist "Hamas terrorist" effigy, complete with a keffiyeh.
Given this (quite public!) context, some fans had already expressed disappointment with Charli for openly affiliating herself with Nekrasova and Red Scare. “[T]he thing that there's songs on BRAT about Sophie and about Dasha at the same time is hillarious [sic],” one Reddit user wrote wryly in July, referencing the late transgender hyperpop icon whose death inspired the song “So I” on Brat. “i feel disappointed.”
Some fans also speculated that the fake track’s message could refer to Charli’s manager, Brandon Creed, whose other clients have included Ariana Grande, Troye Sivan, and Orville Peck. Creed’s stance on Israel is not as well publicized as Nekrasova’s, but his official Instagram account does follow “Stand With Us,” an account that spreads pro-Israel propaganda. Anti-Zionist social media accounts have compiled screenshots of Creed allegedly liking pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian posts on Instagram, although I was not able to independently verify those images’ authenticity.
On r/CharliXCX, fans generally expressed bewilderment at the fake track and how it managed to make it online, though many dismissed the message outright. “It’s virtue signaling pick me bullshit,” one Redditor wrote. Another opined that the pop star — who promoted a fundraiser for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund on her own social pages earlier this year — is not a dedicated Zionist herself, but simply does not possess “a lot of conviction” about most political issues: “she just chases the bag a little [too] hard," they said. "It is worth being critisiced [sic] for tbh.”
Since last October, Israeli bombing campaigns and ground invasions in Gaza have killed more than 40,200 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. At least 93,144 Palestinians have been injured, and another 10,000 are missing.
I emailed iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, and Tidal for comment, as well as Brandon Creed's management company Good World and Charli XCX's representative at Atlantic Records, but did not receive a reply this week.
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UPDATE 8/25 -- The track has now been removed from iHeartRadio. I've replaced the live link with an archived version of the page.
