Charli XCX Burns Hot Pink Rubber in New ‘Speed Drive’ Video

Charli XCX is pink’d out, and peeling out, in the new music video for her Barbie soundtrack song, “Speed Drive.”

The new video, directed by Ramez Silyan, has a simple but appropriate concept: Charli performing and dancing to the song as a hot pink sports car does donuts in an empty lot. There’s even the occasional burning tire that rolls across the industrial landscape like tumbleweed. Plus, a Devon Lee Carlson cameo for the extremely online, as well as a brief appearance from Sam Smith via video call, as they and Charli discuss a new mix for a song. 

“Speed Drive” features prominently in Barbie, soundtracking a big chase scene that involves Barbie and a cavalcade of Mattel executives. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Charli said she was drawn to the scene because of her perennial love of fast car anthems (see: “Vroom Vroom”).

“I’ve always really liked singing about cars,” she said. “For me, there is this intrinsic link between driving and music and feeling like you’re a star when you’re in a car.” 

Charli was also one of the first people Barbie soundtrack producer Mark Ronson contacted to help with the project. The singer has always been a Barbie fan, noting her “first live performance” was an a cappella rendition of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” during a cruise ship talent show when she was four years old.

“My parents were like, ‘Oh, my God. No.’ They were really worried that I was going to get up on the stage and cry, and it would be a disaster,” Charli recalled. “But I was adamant that I wanted to do it. I just sang it on the microphone with new music — the whole song — and I won the contest.”

From Rolling Stone US.