On Instagram, Charli XCX shared her memories of Sophie, and thoughts about her passing. The two were frequent collaborators, with Sophie-written and co-produced tracks like “Vroom Vroom” going on to be near-instant pop legends. “It’s really hard for me to sum up the special connection I felt with such an amazing person who completely changed my life,” Charli writes. “It’s impossible to summarize the journey I went on with Sophie. Even the most insignificant things felt enormous.”
“I can’t explain how I feel and I can’t encapsulate what a unique person she was in one small social media post. I will honor Sophie in my own time personally, in my grief, through my memories, through my work, through writing things only I will read. But for now, all I can is that I will miss her terribly, her smile, her laugh, her dancing in the studio, her gentle inquisitive voice, her cutting personality, her ability to command a room without even trying, her incredible vision and mind. She taught me so much about myself without even realizing. I wish I had told her more how special she was, not just her music, but her as a person. I love you and I will never forget you Sophie.
Through their work together, Charli and Sophie produced some of pop music’s finest works in the 21st century, or maybe ever.
Another favorite:
But the one that sticks with me, still, is “Trophy.” In classic Sophie fashion, Charli screams, at a near-earsplitting decible, autotune cranked so hard the speaker might break: “ALL THE GIRLS ROUND THE WORLD NOW WE’RE IN CONTROL / ALL THE GIRLS ROUND THE WORLD 1, 2, 3 LET’S GO!”
And then, simply: “I want that trophy.”
Charli makes party music. Through Sophie, that urge intensified. Together, their work felt like a release. For them, for their listeners. At the time the Vroom Vroom mixtape dropped, I was depressed, broke, and alone in my own transition-fueled hell. But wherever I listened to it—on the subway, or in my dark apartment, drifting off to a drug-induced void—I suddenly wasn’t so outside myself.
I was one of the girls, around the world, and in control.
