Is There Someone Behind "Boom Clap?"

Charli XCX is continuing her takeover of the pop world. It's almost impossible at this point to turn on the radio or look at the music charts and not see Charli's name up there, either being featured on a song or co-writing. She's pretty much set up shop in the Billboard Hot 100, and with her style, talent, and all around girl power, I see her being around for a long time. Now, if you call your album True Romance and you write some of the best love-riddled pop songs on the planet, the question begs to be asked: Is Charli XCX dating anyone? Is there a special dude that inspires her to write lyrics like, "First kiss just like a drug/ Under your influence/ You take me over you're the magic in my veins/ This must be love?"

First off, a bit more about Charli though so you fully understand the fascination. She's only 22 and is, clearly, already very accomplished. I don't even think I need to mention that little Iggy Azalea track she was featured on and co-wrote because I fear that it will get stuck in your head for the 29348th time. (It's "Fancy." Sorry!) Anyway, since her recent hit "Boom Clap" from The Fault in Our Stars took over the charts, the focus has turned to her second album, Sucker, due to be released on Dec. 15. And by the sounds of her newest dropped single, "Gold Coins," she's still got the power to turn anything into pop gold.

Charli XCX is still super young, but writes from experiences on life and love that almost anyone that has been in a relationship can relate to. In some early interviews from 2012, when her first album True Romance just dropped, she would make casual references to moving into a house with her boyfriend and organizing his DVDs by genre for him. She didn't really make any references to her boyfriend by name, and the first clue to who this guy was was in her interview with Self-Titled magazine in 2012. When asked, "is there ever a point when you feel I want to be just a regular person?" Charli responded,

Yeah, when my friends are going and I have a gig to do. But my boyfriend is a film director and it’s really starting to happen for him, and we have friends in fashion in which things are happening for them too. I think we’re surrounded by people who live this lifestyle.

OK, so, now I've figured out she had a film director boyfriend in 2012 and quickly found an article on her from Grantland, in which the writer describes Charli looking much younger than 20 years old as she "play-wrestles with her videographer boyfriend, Ryan." Just a few more Google searches leads me to Ryan Andrews, a 32-year-old director from Wales who is listed on Charli XCX's Wikipedia page as her boyfriend. Now, I can't tell you who updates these interesting corners of the Internet, but Ryan Andrews being her boyfriend makes sense, as a little bit more lurking leads me to his Twitter, where he writes that he's directed her music videos, including "SuperLove," "What I Like," and "Take My Hand."

With the whirlwind of press that Charli is doing for her upcoming album, Sucker, it was inevitable that the relationship question would come up, and she has been very candid in her current status. On Oct. 3, Charli appeared on Billboard as their cover girl, and in her interview, the writer described how she is handling all this new hype, saying, "She keeps a low profile. She's single, having parted ways with her last boyfriend, Ryan Andrews, a 32-year-old filmmaker from Wales who directed five of Charli’s early music videos."

That wasn't the only confirmation of Charli's current single lady status. As Seventeen magazine's cover girl for their December/January 2015 issue, she is asked about relationships and says she is "too busy" to have a boyfriend at the moment. Does this mean that she and Andrews are over? It appears so, but it seems like the couple ended things amicably, with Andrews recently tweeting in support of her EMA performance:

Devoting her time to her career actually says a lot about what the future has to hold for Charli XCX — a talented and ambitious woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to get it. Continuing on in Seventeen magazine, the singer said,

I’m going to build an empire. I’m always writing for someone else. I want to be someone who has her fingerprints all over the pop charts. I’m too busy taking over the world to have a boyfriend right now.