Charli XCX’s “Boys” has everything going for it: It’s simple and catchy, and its fantastic video has a bunch of famous dudes acting all sultry and cute. But what happens to the song if you take away the celebrity hunks? It’s still great, as the acoustic version proved, and when Charli XCX performed the song on The Tonight Show last night with nary a famous boy in sight, it remained the slice of pop heaven that it is.
There were still plenty of (non-recognizable) boys there, posing and dancing in all-white outfits on bleachers in the background. (Is that a subtle reference to Jack Antonoff, who appeared in the original video and performs as Bleachers? No, probably not.) Charli XCX, rocking a black patterned jumpsuit, a gold chain, and sunglasses, gave an enthusiastic and fun performance that appropriately matched the bouncy but mid-tempo energy of the track. All in all, it was a joyous three minutes of late night television.
It’s also worth noting that this performance brought with it our first piece of info about Charli XCX’s next album, as vague as it was: While introducing the performance, Jimmy Fallon said that her next album is slated to come out at some point next year, which we probably could have guessed anyway.
Watch the performance above, and revisit the original video here.
