In 2014 Charli XCX was riding high. “Boom Clap,” featured on the soundtrack to the movie The Fault in Our Stars, was a massive hit. She had also scored huge with “Fancy,” her collaboration with Iggy Azalea. Biggest of all, she had finished her second album, SUCKER, and was ready to unleash it on the world.
She was also a featured performer at the Japanese Summer Sonic festival. The yearly August festival is split into two cities, Chiba and Osaka, with bands playing one city the first day and the other the second. In 2014 that line-up also included Avril Lavigne, Arctic Monkeys, Ghost and Twenty-One Pilots.
During her set in Chiba on August 17, 2014, Charli XCX would break out three new tracks from the upcoming album. “London Queen” kicked off the set, followed by “Breaking Up.” She also included “Break the Rules” which would become SUCKER’s first single.
Charli’s set also included two covers. One was her 2012 collaboration with Icona Pop, the hit “I Love It.” The other was a song she’d previously released on her Soundcloud in January of 2014, “Allergic to Love” by Snuffed by the Yakuza, a band featuring her producer Patrik Berger.
Here's video of Charli performing "Allergic to Love" live in 2015!
The set wrapped with, obviously, “Boom Clap,” which would also be featured on SUCKER.
Following the Summer Sonic shows, Charli would officially announce SUCKER, perform at the MTV Video Music Awards and launch her first headlining tour in the Girl Power North American Tour. But the first taste of it all came from a sweltering show in Japan.
