• Charli xcx dropped her new song and music video “SS26” on May 21, directed by the duo Torso
• The video is staged as a Paris runway show and packed with fashion insiders, from Carine Roitfeld to Anthony Vaccarello
• “SS26” was produced by A.G. Cook and Finn Keane, who co-wrote the song with Charli
• The track is the second preview of her upcoming seventh studio album, following “Rock Music”
• Charli was recently named a YSL Beauty ambassador, adding real-world context to the fashion-world casting

Charli xcx has found her version of the Met Gala — and it goes straight to hell. The pop star dropped her new song and music video “SS26” Thursday night (May 21), and if “360” was her downtown It-girl moment, this one belongs entirely to the fashion industry’s inner sanctum.

Directed by Torso — the creative duo of Miodrag Manojlović and Lukas von Haller, working from a concept by Charli herself — the video is staged as a high-fashion runway presentation, complete with front-row legends, backstage chaos, a catwalk stumble worthy of Sex and the City, and, eventually, a dressing room explosion. It’s glamorous, it’s nihilistic, and it’s very much on brand.

The lyrics set the tone immediately: “Spring Summer ’26 / When the world is gonna end, no hope for any of it / Yeah, we’re walking on a runway that goes straight to hell / Nothing’s gonna save us, not music, fashion, or film.” Former Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld opens the video from the front row with a line that doubles as the whole thesis: “Fashion won’t save us. But let’s go on the runway and walk.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=twLhSqabby0%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Charli also uses the second verse to take a swipe at the cancel-culture news cycle with a wink: “I was hacked, it got taken out of context, obviously / But I didn’t do it, even if I did, wrote a really good notes app apology.” It’s the kind of self-aware pop lyric that only works when the person singing it has actually lived through the machine — and she has.

The Guest List Is the Whole Point

If you know fashion, you’ll spend the entire video pausing to place faces. This isn’t the brat-era downtown crew of Julia Fox, Gabbriette, Rachel Sennott, and Alex Consani — though that “360” cast was its own perfect moment. “SS26” goes deeper into the industry itself: the people who actually make fashion happen, not just wear it.

Alongside Roitfeld, the video features supermodel Debra Shaw and Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello — notable given that Charli was recently appointed a YSL Beauty ambassador. PR powerhouse Lucien Pagès is there. So is legendary runway sound producer Michel Gaubert (the man responsible for the sonic identity of Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel shows) alongside his partner Ryan Aguilar.

Then there’s the deeper cut crowd: indie designers Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø of August Barron (plus their PR David Siwicki), Abraham Ortuño Perez of Abra, Dan Sablon (creative director of Zadig & Voltaire, whose clothes Charli wore in the “Rock Music” video), model and director Farida Khelfa, designer Gian Gisiger, creative consultant Nhu Duong and her baby Deva, producer Patrik Sandberg, stylist and model Victoria Sekrier, Supreme’s Zac Ching, filmmaker Loïc Prigent, and La Watchparty’s Lyas. Consider it a partial directory of fashion’s most connected people — the kind you only know if you’re already in the room.

Singer Abra also makes a cameo, continuing her place in Charli’s extended creative universe.

The Buildup Was Very Charli

She teased the song earlier this week with a Substack post that read like either song lyrics or a fashion manifesto — turns out it was the former. “Think my politics could work as a press strategy,” she wrote, “And my heritage could give me quite the USP / Can’t hide the fact I’d rather take the easy road.” She also posted a flier on socials inviting fans to “attend the presentation of Charli xcx SS26 directed by Torso,” treating the drop like an actual show invitation.

Before the official video premiered, she hosted a 30-minute “Pre Show” on YouTube — trying on outfits, showing off pieces from designers she’s been wearing lately, including Lou de Bètoly, which she wore to the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival. It was the kind of behind-the-scenes warmth that makes her fanbase feel genuinely included in whatever she’s building.

“SS26” was produced by A.G. Cook and Finn Keane, who both co-wrote the song with Charli — the same team behind “Rock Music,” released two weeks ago as the first preview of her still-untitled seventh studio album.

Where the New Album Fits

“Rock Music” announced a pivot away from the dance-floor sound that defined Brat, with Charli singing, “I think the dance floor is dead / So now we’re making rock music” — a line that caught enough attention to draw a response from Madonna, who posted on Instagram this week: “If your Dance floor feels dead, maybe you’re playing the wrong music,” ahead of her own dance album Confessions II arriving July 3.

Charli has been characteristically unbothered about the discourse. “If you get me, you get me and if you don’t, you don’t. and thats ok,” she posted on X. She’s also clarified that “rock music” was never a genre declaration — just a vibe. “A video of me making a song called ‘rock music’ that is not actually rock music,” she captioned behind-the-scenes footage from the recording session, “which is funny because I never said I was making a rock album.”

Both “Rock Music” and “SS26” will appear on the upcoming album, which still has no title or release date. Given that she’s barely stopped since Brat — the world tour, the film The Moment, and earlier this year the Wuthering Heights soundtrack featuring collaborations with John Cale and Sky Ferreira — it’s safe to assume the pace isn’t slowing down.

“Nothing’s gonna save us,” she sings. And yet here she is, walking the runway anyway.

The post Charli xcx’s ‘SS26’ Video Is Fashion’s Coolest Guest List appeared first on Cream.

• Charli XCX has released her new single “Rock Music” along with an official music video directed by Aidan Zamiri
• The track was produced with longtime collaborators A.G. Cook and Finn Keane and was recorded at Paris’ Rue Boyer Studios in October 2025
• The Wuthering Heights companion album’s success at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 set the stage for this new era
• Charli previewed the song’s release with a now-viral teaser of her smashing a guitar with a stiletto heel
• She headlines Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Reading and Leeds, and Austin City Limits this summer and fall

The dance floor is dead. Charli XCX said so herself — and she meant it. The British pop star dropped her new single “Rock Music” Friday night alongside an official music video, and it’s exactly as provocative, self-aware, and weirdly fun as you’d expect from someone who turned the color green into a cultural moment.

The song opens with the line that’s been following Charli since her British Vogue cover story in April: “I think the dance floor is dead, so now we’re making rock music.” From there, it erupts into a blazing guitar riff layered over what is, at its core, still an electronic pop track — more Daft Punk than Deep Purple, as one description nailed it. Charli splices and dices her vocals through the chorus while the guitars crunch underneath. It’s a glitchy, mid-paced thing that doesn’t quite fit any box, which is kind of the whole point.

She’s been transparent about that tension. After the Vogue piece framed her next album as a “rock reinvention,” Charli posted a studio clip on Instagram with a caption that said everything: “a video of me making a song called ‘rock music’ that is not actually rock music which is funny because i never said i was making a rock album.” The wink is very much built into the product.

The Video: Black, White, and Absolutely Chaotic

The video, directed by Aidan Zamiri — who also helmed the “Guess” remix visual with Billie Eilish — is shot almost entirely in black and white. Charli struts through central Manhattan in next to nothing, chain smoking, making out with strangers, and at one point, unleashing a full moshpit. Color only bleeds back in when she hits the chorus and delivers that central declaration. It’s theatrical, a little campy, and very intentional.

The whole thing was teased the day before release when Charli posted a short clip on Instagram showing only her feet — in impossibly high black stilettos — stomping down on an electric guitar and snapping it clean in two. The moment her heel makes contact, a blast of fuzzy guitar and drums kicks in. “rock music. song and video out tonight. 9pm pst,” the caption read. The internet, predictably, lost it.

The song also functions as a love letter to her creative circle. “Me and my friends / We go out, we take pictures / We make stuff together, and sometimes we cry / We kiss each other, real incestuous vibes,” she sings — a shout-out to the collaborative world she’s built with producers A.G. Cook and Finn Keane (formerly known as Easyfun), who co-produced the track alongside her. Those sessions happened in Paris, at Rue Boyer Studios, back in October 2025.

Charli dropped the track hours after her friend the Dare debuted it live during his opening set for PinkPantheress in Brooklyn — a very Charli way to let a song into the world.

What She Said About Leaving the Dance Floor Behind

The Vogue interview that started this whole conversation gave some real insight into where Charli’s head is at creatively. “If I’d made another album that felt more dance-leaning, it would have felt really hard, really sad,” she told the magazine. “That’s interesting for me is to bend the possibilities of what my perspective on that could be.”

She also made clear that the pivot wasn’t about going macho or making a statement about rock music’s legitimacy. “We were doing our version of analogue, which is so silly and funny, but putting it through our lens, and making sure that nothing felt too macho, was important,” she said. “For me, it’s fun to flip the form. We know there’s gonna be people who are bothered by it, but that’s fine.”

“Rock Music” is her first release since the Wuthering Heights companion album arrived in February — a record tied to Emerald Fennell’s film starring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, featuring guest contributions from John Cale and Sky Ferreira. That album debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. Before that, Brat peaked at No. 3 on the same chart, hit No. 1 in the UK and Australia, and basically defined 2024’s pop conversation. She also contributed to the Mother Mary soundtrack alongside Jack Antonoff and FKA Twigs, and her How I’m Feeling Now fan favorite “Party 4 U” got a 7” vinyl release for Record Store Day last month.

A Year That’s Already Packed — And Getting Fuller

Music is only part of the story. Charli has thrown herself into film in a way that’s genuinely remarkable. Her mockumentary The Moment — an A24 production based on her original idea and the first co-production from her studio365 venture — came out in January. She also appears in Daniel Goldhaber’s remake of the 1978 cult horror Faces of Death, Gregg Araki’s erotic thriller I Want Your Sex, Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist, Julia Jackman’s period fantasy 100 Nights of Hero, Romain Gavras’ satirical action film Sacrifice, Pete Ohs’ intimate drama Erupcja, and a still-untitled Takashi Miike project.

And then there’s the festival run. She headlines Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 31, Outside Lands in San Francisco on August 7, and Reading and Leeds on August 28 and 29. In the fall, she takes both weekends of Austin City Limits in Texas, sharing the bill with Lorde and Twenty One Pilots.

“Rock Music” is the opening move in what looks like a very deliberate next chapter — one that’s less about genre and more about Charli doing exactly what she wants, surrounded by the people she loves, and daring anyone to have a problem with it.

The post Charli XCX Is Done With the Dance Floor — ‘Rock Music’ Is Here appeared first on Cream.