Charli XCX Responds To Complaint From Poor Man’s Charli XCX Marina & The Diamonds
Charli XCX has toured with fellow UK pop force Marina And The Diamonds, and the two recorded the 2013 song “Just Desserts” together. This is all very nice of Charli, considering that Marina And The Diamonds is what might happen if Charli was exactly the same but not as good. But the two might not be so tight anymore. Marina is reportedly salty that Charli turned up in a promotional shoot for a new fragrance campaign, posing in an image that looked very similar to the artwork for “Immortal,” a single from Marina’s 2015 album Froot. That’s the Marina single art above, and Charli’s perfume ad is below.
As PopCrush points out, the same photographer, Charlotte Rutherford, shot both images. And in a since-deleted Instagram comment, Marina apparently wrote, “That FROOT looks familiar!” She then shot out this subtweet:
Imagery is artistic property. Please respect your fellow artists.
— Marina Diamandis (@MarinasDiamonds) March 10, 2016
Charli then responded to the whole thing with a long, thoughtful Instagram caption, basically writing, “This sort of shit happens sometimes.” She went to great lengths not to dismiss Marina while still totally dismissing her claims. Here’s the Instagram:
And here’s the complete text of what she wrote:
You know what, sometimes you do a photoshoot standing infront of a plant, sometimes you do a photoshoot in black and white, sometimes you wear purple eyeshadow. Sometimes you shoot with the same photographer a fellow artist has shot with. That’s just how things happen in the industry I work in. The image in discussion (not this one), which a lot of fans have been making noise about online, was from a photoshoot for a fragrance brand I have been working with for a while. The point of the shoot is to make the promotional image reflective of the packaging, as I have done on previous collaborations with them. This particular scent is a summer scent, with lemons and hints of burnt orange, the design is tropical, bright yellow with pineapples, palm trees and sunglasses printed on the can. The whole brief for the campaign was based around a tropical theme, which is what the brand aka “the client”, wanted. Hence the direction of the photoshoot. I had not seen the artwork for the Marina And The Diamonds (@marinagrams) song “Immortal”, and it was not an inspiration for this photoshoot or the campaign as a whole. I’ve seen it now, and yeah unfortunately it looks similar. It was shot by the same, incredibly talented photographer, and it’s a shame for both myself and Marina that this has happened. I’m not here to replicate or “steal” art or things that have already been done. What’s the point in that? I’m here to do my own thing and create my own art. As I’ve said, the image in question, which I believe Marina had previously commented on on the photographers Instagram, was for a brand based photoshoot for a tropical, lemon scented fragrance campaign (what was I supposed to do – shoot it in the snow?!). It is not the artwork for my own album or single. That’s all I need to say really. Everybody enjoy your Friday. Love to all. 💜 Tonight is the launch of my record label Vroom Vroom Recordings. Im very excited and can’t wait to start releasing more music from myself and other artists that I love.