Charli XCX Tearfully Explained Why She Won’t Perform 1 Specific SOPHIE Song
Charli XCX and SOPHIE’s friendship dated back several years before SOPHIE’s tragic death in 2021. The two musicians collaborated on several songs together, with SOPHIE even producing one of Charli’s most beloved projects. And despite the fond memories Charli has of the late Scottish producer, there’s one song of theirs that she refuses to perform on stage.
SOPHIE’s death hit Charli XCX hard
Following SOPHIE’s death by accidental fall in January 2021, Charli shared a statement on social expressing how devastated she was by the loss of her friend.
“It’s really hard for me to sum up the special connection I felt with such an amazing person who completely changed my life,” she wrote. “There are so many memories, so many small details, so many different views and incredible feelings and stories. It’s impossible to summarize the journey I went on with Sophie. Even the most insignificant things felt enormous.”
Charli continued to pay credit to SOPHIE following the release of her acclaimed 2022 album Crash. The vinyl sleeve for the LP contained a dedication to SOPHIE.
“She changed my life, you know? And she changed all of our lives,” Charli said during an Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe in March 2022. “Not just because of her music which, obviously, is so incredible but because of the person that she was as a person like she championed us.”
Charli XCX won’t perform her and SOPHIE’s song ‘Taxi’
SOPHIE produced Charli XCX’s 2016 EP Vroom Vroom. The project’s title track remains one of the singer’s most popular songs to this day.
In June 2022, Charli XCX was performing at a concert when fans began yelling for her to perform “Taxi,” an unreleased song that she made with SOPHIE back in the mid-2010s. The song was recorded while Charli was putting together her album XCX World, which was eventually scrapped.
After hearing calls for her to perform it, she expressed just how hard it is for her to think about the song.
“Sometimes, I get really emotional when people yell ‘”Taxi!” “Taxi!” “Taxi!”’ Like, I get really sad,” Charli said, tearing up. “That was a song that we loved together, and it was a song that never got to have the life that it was supposed to have, and I’m not going to take anyone’s concert experience away from them, that’s not my f***ing style. You can do whatever you want at my shows as long as it comes from a place of love.”
“I just wanted to come and explain to you why sometimes it’s really hard to hear that,” she continued. “It’s no disrespect to the song, it’s not out of disrespect to you guys, it’s just tough because that song is a song I made with a person who I care about so much and who I love so much, but I just wanted to explain it because I don’t think I ever had.”
After explaining why it was so difficult for her to perform the song, she went on to hype the crowd up with “Vroom Vroom,” a timeless SOPHIE collaboration that actually was released.
SOPHIE produced other Charli XCX songs
In addition to the Vroom Vroom EP, SOPHIE worked with Charli XCX on other tracks throughout the 2010s.
SOPHIE produced “Lipgloss” and “Roll With Me” from Charli’s 2017 mixtape Number 1 Angel, as well as “Out of My Head” from her Pop 2 mixtape released the same year.
