{"id":532069,"date":"2026-07-04T02:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532069\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T02:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:08:20","slug":"charli-xcx-discusses-her-indian-heritage-its-difficult-to-place-yourself-and-to-understand-your-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532069\/","title":{"rendered":"Charli XCX discusses her Indian heritage: “It\u2019s difficult to place yourself and to understand your identity”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charli XCX<\/a> has opened up about her Indian heritage, saying it can be \u201cdifficult\u201d to understand her \u201cidentity\u201d as a mixed-race person.<\/p>\n

The singer, born Charlotte Emma Aitchison, was speaking on Nicky Reardon\u2019s Nicky At Night podcast while discussing her upcoming album \u2018Music, Fashion, Film\u2019<\/a>, which is set for release on July 24.<\/p>\n

On recent single \u2018SS26\u2019<\/a>, Charli sings: \u201cThink my politics could work as a press strategy\/ And my heritage could give me quite the USP.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about referencing her heritage in the lyric, Charli said: \u201cI feel like there is this world where I could really play that up a lot. It doesn\u2019t come natural to me probably because of the way that I engage with being a mixed person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charli, 33, was raised in Essex by a Scottish father and an Indian mother, and explained that she struggled with belonging when she was younger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really feel like I belonged in either side of my family,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

She added that she would feel like an \u201coutsider\u201d both when \u201changing out every weekend with the Indian side of my family\u201d and \u201cat school with a bunch of white girls\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s difficult to place yourself and to understand your identity,\u201d she went on. \u201cAnd a lot of my friends who are mixed also feel that same way. It\u2019s hard to feel like you can really claim something. But I am really happy to talk about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charli also clarified that \u2018SS26\u2019 is not about \u201cthe end of the world\u201d, as some fans had speculated, but instead addresses the pressure to present a \u201cmorally pure\u201d version of yourself online.<\/p>\n

Charli released \u2018SS26\u2019 in May, with its Paris-shot video finding her walking a runway \u201cstraight to hell\u201d. The song is set to appear on \u2018Music, Fashion, Film\u2019, Charli\u2019s upcoming follow-up to \u2018Brat\u2019<\/a>. She recently shared cheeky new single \u2018Wink Wink\u2019<\/a> alongside a raunchy video, following the earlier track \u2018Rock Music\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s black-and-white cover was shot by Aidan Zamiri and features\u00a0John Cale<\/a>, Marc Jacobs and\u00a0Martin Scorsese<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Charli\u00a0also recently\u00a0opened up about spending time in Paris with Madonna<\/a>, after the pair appeared\u00a0to end speculation of a feud by partying together in the French capital<\/a>.\u00a0She\u00a0said she found it \u201cvery inspiring to hang out with her\u201d,\u00a0adding that she had enjoyed hearing Madonna discuss her own relationship with pop,\u00a0fashion\u00a0and the\u00a0dancefloor.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere,\u00a0Charli recently spoke candidly about her mental health<\/a>, saying: \u201cI\u2019m in the worst place mentally that I\u2019ve been in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that she was \u201cstruggling\u201d in the wake of the \u2018Brat\u2019 era, while also moving into a new creative chapter across music,\u00a0fashion\u00a0and film.<\/p>\n

She will return to the stage to make\u00a0her headline debut at Reading & Leeds<\/a>\u00a0in August, topping the festival bill alongside\u00a0Fontaines D.C.<\/a>,\u00a0Raye<\/a>,\u00a0Florence + The Machine<\/a>, Dave <\/a>and Chase & Status<\/a>.\u00a0Visit here<\/a>\u00a0for tickets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charli XCX has opened up about her Indian heritage, saying it can be \u201cdifficult\u201d to understand her \u201cidentity\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,641],"class_list":["post-532069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-pop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}