‘Turning An Arena Into a Club Was the No. 1 Challenge’: Inside Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s Sweat Tour

Even before Charli XCX dominated the summer with her acclaimed album brat, there was internal chatter about a joint arena tour with her and Troye Sivan. “I was pretty unsure how it would work, honestly,” recalls creative director Imogene Strauss, citing how unusual it is for two artists to alternate within the set list. “I was like, ‘This is going to be a challenge’ — and I think everyone felt that way.”

Ultimately, fusing two separate tours — Charli had debuted her solo brat shows during album release week at Primavera Sound in June while Sivan had embarked on his own European/U.K. headlining tour in support of his third album, Something To Give Each Other, in May — for a fall co-headlining run proved easier than expected. The Sweat tour kicked off Sept. 14 in Detroit and quickly became one of music’s hottest tickets, with sold-out dates at Madison Square Garden and Kia Forum with surprise guests including Lorde and Kesha, respectively. The trek concluded in Seattle on Oct. 23.

“It’s been an interesting morphing, shifting thing because of the scale, but also because of the collaboration element of it,” says Strauss, who has worked with Charli since 2019. Along with Jonny Kingsbury of Cour Design, the pair leaned heavily on lighting as a unifying element for the tour. “That ultimately became the thing that could tie the two shows together,” she says. Adds Kingsbury: “Traditionally with a pop artist, you would use bright key light and lots of downstage wash, but instead we light her very strobe-y, almost as if you were watching someone walk through a club in a movie throughout the entire show.”

Another early decision the creative team made was to enlist a Steadicam operator from the music video world and to hire a focus puller, which Strauss says is “expensive and specific, but I think it’s added this cinematic level that has been so positive.” (Plus, as Kingsbury says, the concept paired well with the brat aesthetic, “with [Charli] pushing the camera man aside, spitting on the catwalk and licking it up. All of that feels very brat.”)

Fittingly, Strauss’ favorite part of Sweat showcases that creative synergy: Midway through the show, as Sivan is wrapping up “Stud” on the main stage and Charli is gearing up for “365” from the scaffolding, the screens are turned off and Charli’s iconic “bumpin’ that” line blares from the speakers. “Musically, the worlds are so well tied together, and being able to express that visually… it’s just so cool to see the worlds collide in a way that really works,” she says. Both she and Kingsbury credit music director Mitch Schneider for “expertly” putting Charli and Sivan’s music together, ultimately laying the foundation for the entire show.

“I think most people were expecting this tour to be like, Troye plays a set and then Charli plays a set,” says Strauss. “But Troye and Charli and all of us involved were like, ‘If we’re gonna do this, it’s gonna be intertwined musically, visually, everything.”

As a result, Kingsbury says a lot of the feedback he’s been hearing about the tour was how polished the show was. Both he and Strauss say many arena tours today rely on “gags” or “interstitial content” to help with costume or staging transitions, whereas Sweat was “very dialed in,” says Kingsbury. “Everyone is always trying to go bigger and more ridiculous — we went the opposite direction.”

“[This tour] doesn’t take itself too seriously — people dance like crazy,” adds Strauss. “Turning an arena into a club was the No. 1 challenge, and when the arena was literally shaking, I was like, ‘OK, success.’”

A version of this story appears in the Oct. 26, 2024, issue of Billboard.