“1999” is a collaboration between British singer Charli XCX and South African born singer Troye Sivan. It was released on October 5th, 2018, as the lead single from Charli XCX’s third studio album Charli.
The song was originally debuted by Charli at a small, intimate listening party with select fans in June 2018, during which she asked those attending if she should release the track it or pitch it to other artists. Shortly after, a short clip of Charli’s solo demo leaked online, with the full demo ultimately leaking (albeit in low quality) around a month before the single’s release. Originally assumed to be produced by Max Martin, the final version of the song was produced for release by Swedish writer and producer Oscar Holter.
Charli began to hint at the impending release on Twitter in late September, during which she tweeted multiple quotes from multimedia pieces released in 1999, such as a quote from the movie American Beauty and a line from Eminem’s single “My Name Is.”
The release was officially announced on October 1st, 2018, with Charli and Troye both tweeting the single cover, which directly references the 1999 science fiction movie, The Matrix. On the cover, Charli and Troye channel two of the movie’s main characters, Trinity and Neo, respectively.