David Byrne praises Charli XCX’s “really brave” and “economical” stage show
David Byrne has praised Charli XCX for her “really brave” and “economical” stage show.
Back in June, Charli played a massive headline show on the Other Stage at Glastonbury 2025, a victory lap for her ‘Brat’ era.
The show was met with some criticism due to her use of autotune, which she later responded to, saying: “The best art is divisive and confrontational and often evolves into truly interesting culture rather than being like kind of ok, easily understood and sort of forgettable.”
Now, the Talking Heads frontman has responded to Charli’s performance style in a new interview with Rolling Stone, saying: “I saw Charli XCX, and it was just her onstage, no band, no dancers, nothing else. I thought, ‘Whoa, this is really brave.'”
“Part of me was also going, ‘Wow, this is really economical, too’,” he continued. “But I don’t know if I’m ready to do that.”
Byrne went on to comment on the slew of younger artists citing him as an influence today, saying: “I’m excited about what I’m doing at the moment, whether it’s a record or a tour or something else. And maybe that’s a big reason why some of these people like what I do. They see that I’ve gotten myself into a place where I have a certain amount of freedom to try things out and do different things, which is rare in the music world.”
It comes after he teamed up with Robyn for a surprise rendition of ‘Dancing On My Own’ at Saturday Night Live‘s SNL 50: The Homecoming concert, and later joined Olivia Rodrigo at the Governors Ball to perform ‘Burning Down the House’.
Speaking on his performance with Rodrigo, Byrne said: “I saw her show at Madison Square Garden months before. She’s a great performer, and she was having a really good time, you could tell.
“I got introduced to her afterwards, and she seemed like a real person — someone who, growing up in the world that she did, survived it really well,” he continued. “So then, out of nowhere, comes this invitation: ‘Hey, would you like to join me at Governors Ball?’ My reaction was, ‘Yeah. And shall we figure out some choreography together?’.”
In other news, Byrne recently insisted that Talking Heads won’t be touring again, saying that they cannot recapture the magic of their younger days and also don’t wish to become a legacy act.
Fans’ hopes of a reunion were raised when the band teased a huge announcement back in June. It ended up being the first-ever music video for their iconic hit ‘Psycho Killer’, which starred Saoirse Ronan, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their first live performance.
The band haven’t performed together since 1984, and until they came together in 2023, they hadn’t had a full reunion in 20 years.
Away from that, Byrne is gearing up to release his first new solo album in seven years, ‘Who Is The Sky’, which is due for release on September 5 via Matador Records.
As for Charli, last month she married The 1975‘s George Daniel in an intimate ceremony with only around 20 people in attendance.
She later shared a video from the day, showing off her Vivienne Westwood wedding dress – which she paired with some ‘Brat’-inspired sunglasses – joking that she would have left Daniel at the aisle if he didn’t cry at the sight of her.
During her Glastonbury set, she celebrated ‘Brat’ by performing hits off the album including ‘365’, ‘Apple’, ‘Von Dutch’, ‘Girl, So Confusing’ and more. At the end of the performance, she declared that ‘Brat Summer‘ may not be over after all, declaring that “it’s a forever thing”. The show also saw Gracie Abrams deliver the viral ‘Apple Dance‘.
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Laura Molloy
NME
