Anyone who skipped Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s Monday (Sept. 23) night concert at Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden will likely spend the rest of this week brat-green with envy. Not only did surprise guest Addison Rae beam in to duet with the Sweat Tour co-headliners on her bubbling viral hit “Diet Pepsi,” but Lorde descended from the heavens to give the Internet-crashing “girl, so confusing” remix its live debut.
While the New Zealand trailblazer previously attended Charli XCX’s Brooklyn Paramount concert in June, Monday night marked the first time that the two performed their therapeutic Hot 100 hit together. The historic moment was felt throughout MSG – quite literally, as a wave of sound from shrieking fans hit your eardrums the moment it became clear that Lorde herself had emerged from beneath the stage for the remix duet.
If the “girl, so confusing” studio recording sounds like an olive branch, earnestly offered but swaying unsteadily in the wind, the live performance at MSG made it feel like the duo’s relationship was truly taking roots. Charli, who previously dominated the stage like a wildcat on the prowl, politely held back while Lorde delivered her confessional verse. But by the time they hit the “you walk like a bitch” lyric, both singers were strutting in unison toward the back of the stage with the kind of confidence and verve usually reserved for models during Fashion Week.
Addison Rae, the TikTok star-turned-pop singer whose viral hit “Diet Pepsi” is quickly establishing her as a pop singer to watch, also enjoyed a huge roar of applause when she made her surprise entrance to sing the aforementioned fizzy single. Even better, Charli and Troye joined in to provide vocal support (Sivan’s voice was particularly well-suited to the sugary song). And those two weren’t the only surprise guests: During “Apple,” Charli turned the cameras upon the audience, where Kelley Heyer – the creator behind the viral “Apple” dance on TikTok – was front and center, ready to deliver her signature moves while flaunting a brat-branded skirt.
Those pinch-me moments were social-ready highlights, but even without special guests, the Sweat Tour should go down as a model for other pop stars to follow. Instead of having one co-headliner’s set followed by the other’s, Sivan and XCX traded the stage every three-to-four songs, offering up a seamless, unpredictable two hours of sensual, thumping dance-pop that felt more like a Bushwick gay bar or a U.K. rave than Midtown Manhattan. Not too surprising given the spots where Charli cut her chops, but still quite an achievement to take an arena famous for Billy Joel residencies and Knicks games and turn it into a queer party.
A lot of the credit for the Sweat Tour’s unrepentant, inspirational and liberating queerness goes to Sivan. From the moment he hit the stage, it was clear that the Aussie singer-songwriter has found the perfect negotiation between the sweetness of the voice, the vulnerability of his lyrics and the dancefloor-ready grooves that make for a proper party.
Opening the night with “Got Me Started” (from Billboard’s third-best album of 2023, Something to Give Each Other), Sivan set the tone when he dropped to his knees toward the end of the song, crooning the last few lyrics while one of his well-toned backup dancers dangled the microphone suggestively in front of his crotch. Shades of Madonna, certainly, and not the only time during the night that Sivan drew on past pop icons, from his *NSYNC-esque choreography on “My My My” to some Shania Twain-styled line dancing during the evening’s encore. But despite paying homage to pop icons before him, Sivan’s Sweat set stood on its own – no small feat given that Charli’s setlist was centered around the summer-defining brat album.
Toward the end of the night, Sivan and XCX duetted on both “1999” as well as their “talk talk” remix. While the latter is certainly an unstoppable banger (though it’s kind of funny to watch the two cosplay seducing each other while singing the sex-drenched lyrics), the former offered up the emotional core of the night. As a platform stage housing both raised above the MSG crowd, Troye and Charli traded vocals on the nostalgic banger and fed off each other’s energy in a loose, friendly fashion. Both have been low-key luminaries of the last decade in pop, and we’re lucky to have a co-headlining tour that finds both of them at singular (and sweaty) artistic peaks.