Charlotte Emma Aitchison, known as Charli XCX, is one of the most forward-thinking pop starlets currently in the scene. After gathering a small cult audience online with her mixtapes she rose to international fame in 2013 with her feature in the Icona Pop song I Love It, her debut album True Romance was released soon after to positive critical response but it was a commercial disappointment. She returned, after a series of global hits (a feature on Iggy Azalea's Fancy and her solo release Boom Clap), with the punk-influenced Sucker at the end of 2014 to a warm reception. In 2016 she collaborated with producers A.G. Cook and Sophie to release the critically acclaimed EP Vroom Vroom and continued to push that release's experimental sound with the fellow acclaimed mixtapes Number 1 Angel and Pop 2 in 2017. Her third studio album Charli premiered in 2019 after a series of career setbacks and was labeled among the best albums of the year, it was followed the year after by how i'm feeling now, recorded and mostly composed over the span of six weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A prolific songwriter, Charli has composed some of the biggest hits of the decade, which has sold over 40 million units so far; as a solo artist she has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and has won four Billboard Music Awards and three NME Awards.