The ACL Festival Quiz: Charli, Tinashe and Six Questions

Austin City Limits is closing out its twenty-fifth anniversary edition on Sunday, and the second weekend delivered the festival's most replayed moment. Charli XCX headlined Friday night at Zilker Park and brought out Tinashe as a surprise guest, according to Stereogum, for the first live performances of two songs from Tinashe's new album Popstar. The anniversary edition has drawn big crowds across both weekends, and that one set is the centerpiece of this ACL Festival quiz.

The timing lined up neatly for Tinashe. Popstar arrived September 25 as her eighth studio album and earned the strongest opening week of her career. According to InMusic, that opening week moved thirty-five thousand five hundred equivalent album units, her best by that measure. Days before the festival, she was also announced for Chappell Roan's Super Graphic Spectacular, a two-day charity fundraiser in Los Angeles, according to Stereogum. Friday's appearance folded all of that momentum into a single set.

This ACL Festival quiz turns the weekend into six questions. It covers the surprise guests, the songs that got their live debuts, and the chart milestone Tinashe just reached. Read each question, commit to an answer, then check the bolded line. A scoring guide waits at the bottom.

The six questions

Six questions make up this ACL Festival quiz, and there are no trick options. Every answer comes from the weekend's coverage.

1. Who did Charli XCX bring out as her surprise guest on Friday?

Answer: Tinashe. Charli welcomed the singer onstage during her headlining set on October 9, and the pair performed "Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore" and "Melatonin," according to Daypop. The appearance had been teased hours earlier when Tinashe shared a backstage video of the two dancing together on Instagram Stories. Stereogum has footage of the moment. Charli has been generous with guests lately: her link-up with Madonna made noise last month too.

2. Which song got its live debut that night?

Answer: "Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore." According to Stereogum, Tinashe had never performed the Popstar track live before Friday. She also played "Melatonin," the dance-pop single that has been building since the summer and that Stereogum named to its best songs of the week list back in August. Both songs come from Popstar, and both landed in front of the biggest crowd of her year.

3. Where did Popstar land on the Billboard 200?

Answer: Number six. The debut gave Tinashe her highest-charting album and her first top ten finish, according to Daypop. Her 2014 debut Aquarius peaked at number seventeen, while later records landed lower, with Nightride at eighty-nine and Joyride at fifty-eight, according to Daypop. Popstar finally broke the pattern, and the ACL Festival quiz had to include the stat.

4. When did Charli and Tinashe first work together?

Answer: "Drop That Kitty." The 2015 Ty Dolla $ign single featured both singers as guests, according to Daypop, and they crossed paths again on a 2024 remix. A decade of shared history stood behind Friday's onstage reunion.

5. Who joined Charli during ACL's first weekend?

Answer: Troye Sivan. Charli brought out her Sweat Tour collaborator on October 2, and he performed "Le Boy" and "Party," according to Daypop. Two weekends, two surprise guests: this ACL Festival quiz rewards anyone who noticed the pattern.

6. Which acts close the festival on Sunday?

Answer: Twenty One Pilots, The xx, Geese and Sofi Tukker. Saturday belonged to RÜFÜS DU SOL, Lorde, Lola Young and Young Miko, according to Daypop, leaving Sunday's closers to wrap the anniversary edition. The final night brings the curtain down on two weekends of sets at Zilker Park. That rounds out the ACL Festival quiz.

How you scored

Six out of six means you followed every set. Four or five means you caught the headlines but missed a detail. Three or fewer means the weekend passed you by, and your ACL Festival quiz score says the replay clips are waiting. The clips will circulate long after the stages come down. Olivia Dean is having a big month in music as well, and The Weeknd just took over Singapore.