Charli XCX reveals the inspiration behind her new song with Sam Smith
'In The City' is out now
Charli XCX has just released her banger 'In The City' with Sam Smith, and she joined Sam Thompson on Hits UK to talk about her hit. The singer, who cryptically teased her collaboration in her 'Speed Drive' music video, told Sam all about the inspiration behind her new song.
Charli also opened up about writing 'Speed Drive' for the Barbie film, as well as revealing a song that she wrote for James Blunt, that you might not know about...
What is 'In The City' about?
Charli has previously revealed that her latest song is about: "Feeling accepted, the magnificence of being welcomed into queer spaces and those once in a lifetime people you get to meet when you’re there."
Chatting to Sam she also revealed: "The song is actually about when I was 16. I was coming into London and playing in like queer clubs a lot.
"I didn't really grow up around a lot of queer people, so it was kind of my first experience, like, really being immersed in queer culture and learning about music, fashion, art, language, that was all kind of like generated from queer spaces and so I was like desperate to kind of like meet people and learn new things and I was so inspired and influenced and kind of still out to this day."
She continued: "So I feel like a lot of people from my London partying days are still in my life, and I'm working with some of them on music and stuff still."
Charli, who grew up in Cambridge, went on to explain how her parents would drive her into London when she was younger, so she could perform.
"It was very it was very sweet, but at the time it was like 'Ohh mum and dad are here."
How long did it take to write 'Speed Drive' for the Barbie movie?
'In The City' is the follow-up to 'Speed Drive', which was released earlier this year and features on the Barbie film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. The song was written in just an hour, and Charli told how she wasn't sure if Mark Ronson was going to like it.
Talking to Sam, Charli said: "Didn't really think like much of it, but that is always kind of the way with the songs that end up being big, you know, it's very like instinctual, but I remember Mark Ronson who was kind of creating the soundtrack he had asked me to do a song and I wrote ‘Speed Drive’ and then I sent it through to him and I didn't hear anything back for like a few days and then he text me and was like we need to speak on the phone. And I was like ‘ohh. I'm getting kicked off the soundtrack.’"
She continued: "It felt like right on this text, you know, like we need to talk on the phone. I was like, ‘oh, God. OK. So I rang him, and I was like, you hate it. What's going on?’ He's like ‘no, we love it. It's going in a driving scene, we're going to use it twice.’ And I was like, amazing."
Charli wrote a song for James Blunt
Charli is a very talented songwriter and has written a number of songs for other artists, speaking to Sam that she has a writing credit for a song release by James Blunt, but she admitted to only writing a couple of lines.
"I wrote part of the James Blunt song, and I say part, because I think I literally wrote like two lines and they gave me a credit and I was like, I really don't need like I really don't need this credit because I feel like I didn't really do that much, but they gave me one. So I have a James Blunt credit."
The song was released by James back in 2014 and called 'When I Find Love Again'.
You can hear 'In The City' on Hits Radio.
How to listen to Hits UK on Hits Radio
You can hear Sam Thompson chatting to some of the biggest stars around on Hits Radio, Monday to Thursday from 7pm.
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Now read:
Charli XCX and Sam Smith open up about their new song 'In The City'
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