The leader of the brat pack is celebrating the anniversary of her album, How I’m Feeling Now, in a big way. Despite never being an official single, Charli XCX dropped a stunningly vulnerable music video for her fan-favorite track, “party 4 u,” five years after its initial release.
Based on an original idea from Charli, the Mitch Ryan-directed visual sees the Grammy winner as she packs her things up and leaves an empty room that was trashed from the party she muses about. Once she slides her sunglasses on and heads out into the desert, Charli sheds layers of clothing as her emotions build up throughout the track.
During her Jay Gatsby-esque confessional, she sings of an effort to save her romantic relationship by doing what she does best: partying. Yet, as the visual progresses, she unfurls and crashes out about her ever-changing relationships with love, fame, and success. She dumps her items out of her Coach purse, smokes a pack of Parliaments, and catches a view of a Charli billboard in the distance before tarnishing it with black paint and lighting a match to watch it go up in flames, “Spring Breakers” style. She found peace with destruction.
The video comes after “party 4 u” found new life on TikTok and went viral with more than 2.9 million creator posts to date and 6.6 million views and counting. Since Charli’s final performance at Coachella, there’s been a 95% increase in creator videos and 101% increase in video views on the platform. The track has climbed up the charts, too: it made it onto Billboard’s Hot 100, as well as Spotify’s Global Top 50 chart and U.S. Top 50 chart.
Charli also shared a vulnerable message with fans with a handwritten note posted on Instagram.
“How I’m Feeling Now turns 5 years old tomorrow... It honestly just feels like yesterday,” she wrote ahead of the video’s drop. “So much has changed since then: Me, my life, elements of my music, and most definitely the world. I made the album in just 5 weeks, from conception to release, entirely publicly in collaboration with all of you. It was so special. I felt like I rediscovered myself, my sanity, my sense of connection with the world, at a time where we were all so alone. To create with all of you helped me feel ok.”
She continued, “It was all of us at our most raw, our most stripped, our most vulnerable. I Will never forget it, and I really can’t believe that 5 years later, one of the Angel favorites is having its own special moment.”
Experience that special moment and watch Charli XCX’s full “party 4 u” music video here:
