The banner of Kamala Harris’ official X campaign account has turned chartreuse green. An assumed nod, on social networks, from the Democratic candidate for the American presidential election to the British pop singer Charli XCX and her latest album, entitled Brat.
According to the Internet, Kamala Harris’s biggest endorsement for the US presidential election is not Democratic heavyweights Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi, but Charli XCX, the British pop star and hitmaker whose son album Brat released in Juneis full of.
It is also this word, « brat »which links her to the American candidate. All it took was a message posted on the singer’s social network X: « Kamala IS brat » – Kamala is “brat”, which means “bad kid” in English – to set the platform alight. In less than 48 hours, the singer’s message had garnered more than 313,000 likes on the social network. This tweet allows her to praise the new candidate for the White House while giving a nod to her own fans.
kamala IS brat
— Charli (@charli_xcx) July 22, 2024
Charli XCX has taken this adjective, rather pejorative in English, to make it an ode to relaxation and self-acceptance. The “brat” attitude is a “a girl who is a bit messy, likes to party and maybe says stupid things sometimes”, explained the singer.
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Phenomenon among Generation Z
Paired with a chartreuse green color on its album cover, the word “brat” quickly became popular among Generation Z (people born after 1996) and the LGBTI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) community. On social media, Internet users took up the color to make it the summer trend, “brat summer.” A bit like the pink in the film Barbie which had become the trendy color of last summer, after the release of the film worn by the actress Margot Robbie.
English singer Charli XCX performs during the opening concert of WorldPride 2023 in Sydney, Australia, 24 February 2023. (Photo: Bianca De Marchi/EPA-EFE)
After the singer’s tweet was published, the Kamala Harris’ official campaign account X has taken up this famous green color in its banner, recognizable among thousands. The objective: to try to interest young voters, a key age group for the American left. In April, a survey of CNN published in April among 18-24 year-olds revealed that President Joe Biden was trailing his opponent Donald Trump by eleven percentage points.
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Kamala Harris, a follower of meme culture
This isn’t the first time that candidate Kamala Harris has appropriated meme culture, those iconic internet images, to speak to young people. In a speech at the White House last year, she quoted a remark her mother made when she was a child: “Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in a context in which you live and which preceded you.” Since then, her supporters have taken up the coconut emoji to show their support for the vice president.
The youth of Kamala Harris, 59, compared to Donald Trump, 78, now the oldest presidential candidate in US history, could well influence the November election. Just as pop music continues to influence American politics…
