This is how brat slowly rotted, then went up in flames.
In summer 2024, brat was more than just an album — it was a feeling, a frenetic, rave-infused energy that took over a presidential campaign, shot Charli xcx to global stardom, and changed the meaning of hex-#8ACE00 green forever.
One year later, Charli xcx is grappling with what it means to let go.
Over the past three months, the singer has changed the brat album cover numerous times, altered the appearance of her concert backdrops, and expressed her sadness for having to say goodbye to the project that won three Grammy awards. The decline of brat has been messy and girl, so confusing. At the same time, it’s been a meticulously orchestrated campaign with the goal of chaos — a representation of the struggle to move on from a career-defining moment.
Charli has opened up about the weight of expectations and her approach to her next projects. “I don’t really feel the pressure, because I feel that you can never really do the same thing twice, and my next record will probably be a flop which I’m down for to be honest,” she said in an interview with Billboard. Charli’s producers have also suggested that the singer’s next move will be unexpected. “There is a desire in her to do the complete opposite thing again, which is very in keeping with her ethos,” producer Finn Keane told Grammy.com.
We got what might be the final confirmation of brat’s end three days after the Glastonbury festival, when all her old album covers changed from their brat-ified versions to their original art. To get all the context, here’s a comprehensive timeline of how brat slowly rotted, then went up in flames.
November 2024: Peak brat
After co-headlining the Sweat tour with Troye Sivan in September and October of 2024, Charli gained momentum as she launched her Brat Tour on November 27 in Manchester. Her shows featured a backdrop that resembled the brat album cover, and fans started referring to it as the “brat curtain.”
As Charli brought performances to global audiences, she changed her other album covers to match her latest era.
April 2025: brat gets an edit
On Thursday, April 10, Charli shared an image of a billboard located along the route to Coachella. Captioned “saturday,” the Instagram post teased her upcoming performance in the desert and hinted at the beginning of the end — the sign featured the brat cover, but the text was covered in scribbles.
During the outro of Charli’s weekend two performance at Coachella on April 19, she paced around the stage while the screen behind her displayed messages like, “does this mean that Brat summer is FINALLY over?????” and “maybe it’s time for me to let go?”
The screens then flashed with the names of 24 artists and groups to watch out for this summer, including Addison Rae, who released her debut album on June 6, HAIM, who just unveiled their new album I quit, and Turnstile, who dropped Never Enough and announced a headline tour.
Audiences were met with one final message: “you can’t dread the end when it’s over…,” before the screens glowed with flames and Charli made her exit.
On April 23, the cover of the brat album changed to the crossed-out version on all streaming platforms. The brat curtain matched it during the rest of the April tour dates.
May 2025: The apple starts to rot
In May, the brat album cover got its newest upgrade – streaks of brown rot creeping up towards the center of the image. In Charli’s concerts, the brat curtain was brown and tattered.
As Charli kicked off the U.S. leg of her brat tour in May, audiences noticed that the brat curtain began to progressively get even more brown with rips growing across the sheet after every new show.
Here’s what it looked like after her last night playing in New York City on May 4.
June 2025: The final gasp of Brat summer
On June 7, the one-year anniversary of brat, Charli updated the album cover again, this time to show her love for the project that catapulted her to global fame. But the anniversary only slowed the demise of brat. The curtain remained brown during June concerts and Charli started ripping the backdrop down during her shows.
The brat album cover returned to normal on the morning of Charli’s performance at Glastonbury on June 28, but audiences didn’t have long to wait before brat burned to the ground – literally. That night, as the opening of the delightfully off-kilter “Von Dutch” started to play, the stage lights flickered out and the brat curtain went up in flames.
July 2025: brat is dead, confirmed?
On July 1, three days after brat burned at Glastonbury, we might have gotten our final confirmation that brat is over. On streaming platforms, Charli’s older album covers quietly returned.
Charli didn’t comment on the change, but some fans pointed to an old TikTok where she said, “when [they go back to normal], it will be for a reason.”
At her latest performance on July 2 at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, according to attendees, there was no brat curtain at all.