Charli XCX & Marina And The Diamonds Got Into A Fight About ‘FROOT’

Carl Williott | March 11, 2016 10:22 am

Charli XCX and Marina Diamandis (of Marina and the Diamonds) have a friendly history. They’ve toured together, they did a one-off collaborative single in 2013, Charli spoke to Marina for a BBC documentary about feminism. But their history got a little more complicated Thursday (March 10) after Charli posted a new ad campaign for a fragrance and Marina called her out for copying her own FROOT-era artwork. You can see the similarities in the two photos below.

charli xcx marina diamonds froot beef

Before we go over the social media shade timeline, let’s point out that Marina wasn’t reading into it too much: it turns out Charlotte Rutherford shot both XCX’s new Impulse campaign and Marina’s “Immortal” single art. So after Rutherford posted that “Immortal”-esque image, Marina replied in the comments with “That FROOT looks familiar!”

Marina then switched over to Twitter with “Imagery is artistic property. Please respect your fellow artists,” which Charli responded to.

https://twitter.com/charli_xcx/status/708285561895841793

In her longer statement on Instagram, XCX explains they used the same photographer and that she was unaware of the “Immortal” cover. “Yeah unfortunately it looks similar,” she wrote. “I’m not here to replicate or ‘steal’ art or things that have already been done.” See her whole statement below:

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.

After Charli gave off some posi-vibes to end this minor tiff, Rutherford herself buttoned the whole thing up with perhaps a look at where her inspiration for both shoots came from:

Mood

A photo posted by ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀CHARLOTTE RUTHERFORD (@charlie__chops) on