Charli XCX brings out Tinashe for two-song surprise at Austin City Limits

Charli XCX brought out Tinashe as a special guest during her headlining set at Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 10.

The slot is the top-billed evening performance, the one that closes a festival stage for the night. Tinashe used it for a tight two-song turn. Pitchfork, which detailed the set, put the date at October 10.

She sang “Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore” and “Melatonin” back to back. Both were live debuts, the first time either song had been performed in public. Both are taken from her new album Popstar, according to Billboard.

Short set. Two firsts.

The pairing was not out of nowhere. Charli XCX and Tinashe both featured on Ty Dolla $ign’s 2015 song “Drop That Kitty”. That collaboration came more than a decade before the Austin reunion, when both singers were building their early pop catalogues and working across guest verses and solo releases.

The Austin show was part of a milestone year for the festival. Austin City Limits is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The 2026 event, held at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, was split across two weekends, October 2 to 4 and October 9 to 11. Headliners for the 2026 edition included Charli XCX, Lorde, Twenty One Pilots and the xx, with the first weekend also featuring the War on Drugs among its billed acts.

Charli XCX is on the road in support of her album Music, Fashion, Film. The record includes a collaboration with filmmaker David Cronenberg. She will finish the current North American run with singer and producer Underscores at the end of October. After that she heads to Europe and the United Kingdom with opener Audrey Hobert, the support act who plays before the main artist each night.

The schedule around the guest spot was tight for both artists. Tinashe opens her own Popstar tour on October 11 with a show at FORM Arcosanti, the Arizona festival. The Austin appearance therefore landed the night before her tour begins, with the two new songs tested in front of a festival crowd first.

For fans, this means the Austin crowd heard where those two Popstar songs sit in a live set before the tour proper begins. For those following Charli XCX, it added a shared moment to a headlining show already carrying a new album and a longer run of dates.