Charli XCX is giving fans what they’ve been waiting for—and it only took five years and a TikTok explosion to make it happen. To mark the anniversary of her quarantine-era album How I’m Feeling Now, the alt-pop trailblazer has finally released a music video for “party 4 u,” a fan-favorite deep cut that’s recently blown up on TikTok.
Though never released as a single, “party 4 u” has found a brand-new audience in 2025 thanks to its moody production and aching vulnerability—traits that have translated seamlessly into short-form video gold.
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TikTok Brought the Party
In true 2020s fashion, it wasn’t a record label push that sparked new interest in “party 4 u”—it was the fans. The dreamy track quietly surged on TikTok, racking up more than 2.9 million creator videos and over 6.6 million views, spurred by creators using the song for everything from nostalgic edits to emotional confessions.
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Following Charli’s final performance at Coachella, interest in the song hit new highs, with a 95% increase in TikTok video usage and a 101% jump in overall views. The renewed attention launched the song onto Spotify’s U.S. Top 50 and Global Top 50 playlists, and even pushed it onto the Billboard Hot 100—a major achievement for a song that originally lived in the shadows of more commercial singles.
Visual Symbolism and Emotional Burnout
The new music video for “party 4 u,” directed by Mitch Ryan and conceived by Charli herself, isn’t just a late visual drop—it’s a cinematic breakdown. The video opens in the aftermath of a messy, invisible party. Charli is alone in a trashed room, packing her things in silence as if gathering the pieces of a shattered moment.
Then she heads into the desert—a stark, wide-open contrast to the claustrophobic energy of the party space. As she walks, Charli slowly strips off layers of clothing, each item feeling symbolic of the emotional baggage she’s carried. She smokes Parliaments, empties out her Coach purse, and finally stumbles upon a billboard featuring her own face.
In a final act of rebellion or release—depending on how you view it—she paints over her image in thick black strokes and sets the billboard ablaze. It’s Spring Breakers-meets-performance art, showing how fame, identity, and emotion often combust under pressure.
The video doesn’t aim for sleekness—it leans into the raw, with intentionally unpolished edges and a surreal, home-video aesthetic that mirrors the lo-fi roots of How I’m Feeling Now.
A Moment Five Years in the Making
Charli accompanied the video release with a handwritten message to fans on Instagram, marking the fifth anniversary of the album and thanking her community for helping her make the record during a deeply isolating time. She called the era “raw, stripped, and vulnerable”—qualities that clearly inspired the new video’s tone.
“I really can’t believe that five years later, one of the Angel favorites is having its own special moment,” she wrote.
And what a moment it is. What started as a non-single tucked deep in a pandemic-era project has now become a viral anthem, reimagined with a fierce, fiery visual to match.
Watch the “party 4 u” music video now and see why this slow-burn favorite is finally blazing.
