Apple (song)

"Apple" is a song by English singer Charli XCX. It was produced by A. G. Cook and written by Charli XCX and released on 7 June 2024 from her sixth studio album Brat through Atlantic Records. The track was highlighted as a standout and went viral on TikTok shortly afterwards after spawning a dance craze on the platform.

"Apple" was teased on 8 September 2023 after Charli XCX, a musician of Gujarati-Ugandan descent, uploaded a photo of her notebook, displaying the lyrics to a track called "The Apple". The track was again previewed on 2 April 2024 in a voice memo sent to her fans, which confirmed "Apple" to be part of her 2024 album Brat. The track addresses XCX's relationship with her parents and intergenerational trauma. "Apple" is used as a metaphor symbolizing both family connection and the nature of trauma.^[1]

The song is primarily hyper-pop with electropop and synth-pop.^[2]

Reviewing Brat, Alexis Yi of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's The Tech wrote that "Apple", "Talk Talk", "So I", and "B2b" were her favourite tracks from the album and found XCX's choice to rhyme "apple" with "airport" "comical".^[3] Ansharah Shakil of the University of Calgary's The Gauntlet also considered the track a standout, and complimented its "sunny synths and bleeding-emotion lyrics".^[4] Meaghan Garvey of Pitchfork found the track's fruit allegory "curious", but wrote that she had never had an XCX lyric "bounce around" her head in "the way that lines from “Apple” have".^[5] Gio Santiago of Resident Advisor wrote that the track "would have no issues turning an empty dance floor into a sweaty sauna".^[6] However, a more negative review came from Alex Rigotti of Whynow, who opined that the track's introspective nature was "let down by the boring, dull instrumental it’s paired with".^[7]

The song went viral on TikTok shortly after release after New York-based actor and content creator Kelley Heyer uploaded a dance to the platform, which she created on a whim after finding that the track's rhythm made her want to dance in a particular way. Performing the dance involves body rolls, placing hands on hips, holding an imaginary apple above the performer's head, and pretending to drive a car.^[8] By 28 June, XCX had filmed herself performing the dance alongside Troye Sivan, with Brooke Shields, Joe Jonas, Stephen Colbert,^[8] Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Ashley Tisdale, Jessica Alba, Alix Earle, Kerry Washington, Lisa Rinna, Harry Hamlin, Cody Rigsby,^[9] and Kim Gordon all falling suit.^[10] In addition, a version of the dance was produced by #Amishtiktok content creators, who substituted driving a car for operating a horse.^[8] XCX later uploaded footage of her abortively trying to convince her fiancé George Daniel to perform the dance.^[11]