Cannes is so brat.
On the heels of an electric Coachella performance and a series of roof-raising concerts in Brooklyn, Charli XCX touched down last night at the Cannes Film Festival where she extended Brat summer, bringing some green to the Croisette courtesy of Magnum.
The well-known ice cream brand, which has long posted up for high-profile activations during the festival, once again took over Palais Stephanie. This year, Magnum dedicated Thursday to a day of “unapologetic indulgence” as a way to celebrate the brand’s offerings and inspire “a new generation of pleasure seekers to ‘own the moment’ their way,” per official intel.
Charli XCX at the Magnum party wearing Vivienne Westwood archive in a reported homage to a 1995 runway moment that featured a model eating a Magnum ice cream bar.
(Photo by Victor Boyko/Getty Images for Magnum)
Charli XCX owned her moment by causing a stir at the Magnum Cannes beach party where she jumped in the deejay booth and helped to hype up the crowd by singing along to her hits like “Mean Girls.” Later in the night, she even sang along to select lyrics of “360” while a male performer handled the heavy lifting.
Magnum got the party started early by whipping up some green-tinted desserts like brat-approved ice cream bars (with XCX and BRAT embellishments) and XCX shakes ahead of the launch of its Magnum Bakery on Friday. In addition to a deejay set, Lucky Love delivered a performance at the party that included “Now I Don’t Need Your Love” to pump up the crowd for Charli’s appearance. Her showing comes on the heels of close friend and Sweat Tour collaborator Troye Sivan’s partnership with Magnum last year.
The crowd at Thursday’s party included Georgia May Jagger, Jerry Hall, Barbara Palvin, Dylan Sprouse, Romee Strijd, Gabriette Bechtel, Rossy DePalma, Aaron Altaras, Hofit Galan, Caroline Daur, Patrick Ta, Joan Margarit, Biel Juste, Max Balegde, Álvaro Rico and others.
The outing hasn’t been Charli’s only Cannes appearance. A source tells The Hollywood Reporter that the singer-songwriter hit up the Palais on Friday to attend the world premiere of Charlie Pollinger’s The Plague, an official selection of the Un Certain Regard section. Pollinger’s directorial debut, which stars Joel Edgerton, Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin and Kenny Rasmussen, also earned an extended 11-minute standing ovation that Charli no doubt participated in.
After leaving the screening, she updated her official Letterboxd account with a reaction to Pollinger’s film: “Literally sat in the car leaving the screening of this movie feeling like i’m reeling. Sound design on point, undeniable performances and the transition from charming boyhood to total fucking chaos left me shook. It’s so confusing sometimes to be a BOY.” (Read THR critic Lovia Gyarkye’s review here.)
It’s not a surprise to learn that Charli ducked into a film premiere — and updated her Letterbox — during her Cannes stay as the singer has been building a resume of screen credits at a blazing fast clip though none have yet been released. She appears in Benito Skinner’s new Amazon Prime Video series Overcompensating and has a role in Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex opposite Olivia Wilde, Chase Sui Wonders, Mason Gooding, Cooper Hoffman, Johnny Knoxville and Daveed Diggs. She will also star in and produce a film for A24 titled The Moment.
Speaking of moments, she was photographed outside the Magnum Cannes party with a new accessory — what else? — a Magnum ice cream bar. Only in Cannes.
