'I felt so scared to talk about it': Charli XCX speaks candidly about having her computer hacked, politics and having a 'strict upbringing' as a child

Charli XCX spoke candidly about being hacked, politics, and her 'strict upbringing.'

Discussing the various topics with ES Magazine on Thursday, the singer, 27, admitted that she 'felt so scared to talk about' her computer being hacked, as she thought it could happen again.

In 2017 a fan had hacked her Google Drive and leaked several unreleased demos from her third studio album under the title XCX World, which led to Charli scraping the whole thing and starting afresh.

Of worrying about the incident repeating, she explained: 'That was not great, that time. I feel more comfortable talking about it now because at the time I felt so scared to talk about it, that it would happen again. 

'It just really felt like an invasion of my life, my personal space, my personal property. It was just really sad, and I was really hurt.'

With the general election set for December 12, Charli also urged her fans to go out and vote, as she added: 'I think that’s one thing that’s very important, that I use my platform to encourage the younger generation to vote because having a vote is an incredibly powerful thing. 

'And even though people sometimes think, “Oh, I might not, like if I don’t vote it won’t make a difference,” it actually really will. If everybody thinks like that, then nothing will change.'

Charli went on to discuss her 'strict upbringing', as she added: 'I had a strict upbringing in the sense that I had to, like, go to school, get good grades. It wasn’t, like, “make music and go to the rave."'

She also went on to call fellow musician Lizzo, who she collaborated with for the song Blame It On Your Love,  'really great'.

This comes after Charli took to Twitter last week to post a series of messages blasting how the music industry holds women to a different standard than men.

She wrote: 'i am an artist, a songwriter who’s co written multiple "hits" for myself/other artists, a video director, exec producer of a Netflix show, a&r, i run a label, co manage 2 artists.. if I was a man I’d be hailed as some sort of music industry god but as a woman I’m just – doubted??'

'btw i don’t need people to feel sorry for me or anything – i’m just saying it how it is. women in this industry are constantly questioned on their validity… "did she REALLY write that?" "can she REALLY produce?" "does she REALLY know what she’s doing?" i see it all the time. (sic)'

Charli then called for a stop to the criticism in a final few lines: 'any and all female popstars in 2019 are obviously business women: running their own careers, making their own decisions, directing their own teams, proving points, being groundbreaking and making their own art. like, this is SO OBVIOUS. don’t insult us.' 

The full interview appears in this week’s issue of ES Magazine, which is out now.