“Apple” by Charli XCX

"Apple" is the Brat track that kept on growing after the summer ended. Charli XCX wrote it with George Daniel and Noonie Bao among others and co-produced it with A. G. Cook and Daniel, and in 2024 it went out as the album's fifth single, first to Italian radio on 2 August and then to the US on 10 September.

Under the bright electropop bounce, it's a song about family: the damage that gets handed down from one generation to the next and the ties that stay anyway, all worked through a string of apple idioms. Critics loved its pep and its hook, and then TikTok turned it into a dance craze. It went top ten in the UK and Ireland, reached 12 on US Pop Airplay, earned a Best Pop Solo Performance nomination at the 67th Grammys, and became a fixture of both the Sweat and Brat tours.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.