While pop stardom has many upsides, it also has a few negatives. One is the obligation to host hysterically unfunny American comedy “institution” Saturday Night Live, aka the place laughter goes to die. Adele had to submit to this unpleasant ritual in 2020, and now it is the turn of Essex-born singer and producer Charlotte Aitchison, aka Charli XCX.
It’s been a big year for Charli, who went from cult artist to mainstream entertainer with her Brat album. It was a decent-sized hit – topping the UK charts and peaking at number three in America – but an even bigger internet meme. Aitchison cleverly sold the concept of “Brat” as more than a sound. It was a vibe and lifestyle choice that she defined as a sort of elevated messiness – a sensibility reflected by the LP’s lime-green colour scheme. For a surreal moment, it even seemed possible that her support of Kamala Harris might meaningfully impact on the US Presidential election after she tweeted, “Kamala is Brat”.
This turned out to be a figment of social media’s imagination, but Charli is nonetheless still riding a wave. Coming ahead of a sold-out UK tour, her Saturday Night Live appearance showcased her charisma as a pop star and, more surprisingly, her talents as an actor and impressionist.
She made her big entrance after a quintessentially unfunny “cold open” sketch in which actors portrayed Donald Trump and Joe Biden while looking and sounding nothing like them (Alec Baldwin joined as Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s incoming health secretary). That dreary drum-roll led into Charli, who gamely slogged through the traditional Saturday Night Live opening monologue.