Charli XCX Gathers Online It Girls for Charitable Cause: Hotness
A wise man previously coined the next three months as the summer of the MILF resurgence. What I—or, sorry, he—foolishly didn’t predict is that summer 2024 is also the summer of the HGILTBFW, or, the Hot Girl I’d Like to Be Friends With. No one is more prepared for this summer’s hottie heat wave than Charli XCX, who is no stranger to being hot. In fact, the pop supernova has somewhere between eight to 38 songs on the subject of hotness alone, depending on when you may be reading this. A new hot girl hymn (or an alluring aria, a sexy song, a desirable ditty—take your pick ) could easily drop tomorrow. Hell, one just has!
Charli’s new song “360,” the latest single from her forthcoming album Brat, is the singer’s umpteenth lyrical masterclass in hotness, an intensive on vanity so hyper-focused that it could be taught at the Learning Annex. But why go to a tawdry public education facility when you could simply sit at home and rewatch the video for “360,” which takes Charli’s signature ego-forward lyrics and applies them to the internet’s favorite It Girls? The visual assembles the trendiest women from pop culture’s past, present, and future to throw them in editorial-ready scenarios where they can pose for the camera and show off.
The video might be a regular Hot-toberfest, but what “360” suggests is much broader and more euphoric than it may initially appear. Here, Charli spits in the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to create the HGCU (Hot Girl Cinematic Universe—duh!), the most ambitious crossover event in Instagram addict history. Models, actors, influencers, and multihyphenates come together to be beautiful together, and in turn, thrust that beauty outward and through the screen. It’s an infectious, cameo-filled romp that asks its viewers to shirk any self-doubt or internal loathing and enjoy the person they see in the mirror. In Charli’s world, “360” envisions a utopia where everyone is not just hot, but an It Girl in their own right. How fucking refreshing!