Charli XCX & Rina Sawayama Flip September’s ‘Cry For You’ for the LGBTs

“You’ll never see me again,” Petra Linnea Paula Marklund, the artist formerly known as September, once declared.

Fifteen years and a whole lot of memes later, she’s back once again. Sort of. In the cultural conversation. On Gay Twitter, anyway.

Charli XCX, who is currently feeling her evil-illuminati-sell-out-record-label-puppet-Main-Pop-Girl-fantasy ahead of the release of her long-awaited studio album Crash, has (heavily) borrowed from the chorus of the Swedish chanteuse’s deeply legendary Gold-selling dance-pop smash for her own track “Beg For You,” out Thursday (January 27), co-starring “XS” pop superstar Rina Sawayama. (Hello, LGBTs!)

“Don’t you leave me this way / Won’t you wait another hour or two? / You know I need you to stay / Don’t make me beg for you, ’cause I’ll beg for you,” the two declare on the Digital Farm Animals-produced cut, flipping the message of the empowering Swedish club kiss-off into a desperate plea to have one more hour or two together. (Yearning for more kisses from someone who isn’t giving you the time of day is, canonically, queer.)

Does the track mostly heavily rely on nostalgia for September’s “Cry For You,” and the excitement of two of the Queer Youth’s pop saviors teaming up, rather than necessarily being a revelation in and of itself? Well, yes. Was it mostly already revealed in extended snippet form on TikTok? Well, yes, that too.

And, much like “Good Ones,” and the aforementioned ocean breeze-like lover, it also comes and goes just a bit too soon.

Sure, it’s a Brave New World of TikTok and streaming and attention spans shorter than goldfish now. But still. They should do a 10-minute extended cover of Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand‘s “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” next – the LGBTs would eat it up all the same.

“Beg for You” is still a fun time, nonetheless. And lucky for us, Crash is just around the corner now, impacting on March 18.

Charli, Rina…we thank you for your September salute.

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