In case you were curious, Olivia Rodrigo casually made a major milestone in her career at New York’s very own Governors Ball Music Festival this weekend. While O-Rod has graced the stage for crowds at Glastonbury in the U.K. and Lollapalooza in South America, her main stage gig at Gov Ball marked her very first headlining performance at a U.S. festival. (And, before you clock me, she did play Austin City Limits in 2021, but it wasn’t a headlining performance. Moving on!)
You don’t need me to give you a TL;DR on Olivia—she’s one of the biggest Grammy-winning singer-songwriters who blew up with a heart-wrenching account of getting her driver’s license.
Since her Disney exit and mainstream debut, Olivia’s snarky and honest songwriting prowess has transcended generations. She’s made fans of everyone from Avril Lavigne to Billie Eilish, and she’s one of the only Gen Z girlies who can bring in a massive crowd of angsty teens who grew up in the social media age, 26-year-old teenagers on the edge of another crash out, and millennials who desperately crave the good ’ol days of pop punk. Even with thunderstorm warnings and weather delays that pushed her set back by an hour, the proof was in the pudding at Flushing Meadows Corona Park during her headlining set at Gov Ball on Saturday, June 7.
This marked my first time seeing the star live, and it definitely exceeded any and all expectations I once had. When it comes to attending Olivia’s shows, I’ve had “almost” situations too many times, and to be fair, tickets for both her SOUR and GUTS tours sold out instantly. So, I was just happy to be one of the thousands there to catch her Gov Ball gig.
She kicked things off with her deep cut-turned-fan favorite “Obsessed,” and without hesitation, everyone in my section—especially my Cosmo girls—screamed all the words back at her. Once she flew through her guitar solo and too hot to handle camera angles, she declared it was “time to party”…and proceeded to play two of the most heartwrenching tracks of her career, “Drivers License” and “Traitor.”
Of course, a standout moment was when she casually brought out The Talking Heads’ David Byrne, another musical legend who has influenced artists from Lorde to Miley Cyrus, as a special guest. The duo performed the band’s 1983 hit, “Burning Down the House,” as they skipped around the stage and playfully danced with one another in matching red outfits. It was a moment of one iconic rockstar passing the baton to another, and, above all else, it reminded me that Olivia’s music taste is truly top-tier.
If the Grammy winner has mastered anything aside from her songwriting chops and live vocals, it’s commanding a crowd. We were all wrapped around her finger for the 1.5-hour set. Whether she’s belting to “Favorite Crime” or letting loose on “Get Him Back!” she doesn’t miss a beat. She’s in the moment, feeling every emotion, and radiating off the crowd’s reactions—and trust me, we felt it, too. Shedding tears during her ballads and releasing all our grievances by screaming at the top of our lungs to “All-American Bitch” almost felt like a form of therapy.
Most child stars embark on a tumultuous journey out of their innocent images so they can burst through the box they’re inevitably placed in. As a woman, it’s a more layered experience because once they break out of that box, they’re placed into another. Olivia crossed over at 17 and made a name for herself with the intimate intricacies of her lyrics, but she got ahead of becoming known only as that “little Mexican girl that be crying.” (For the record, she’s actually Filipino-American.)
It’s a rarity that someone’s debut single becomes an instant classic, and “Drivers License” did just that. In a couple of decades, SOUR will be seen in a similar vein as Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and Carole King’s Tapestry, if not already. Our kids and grandkids will know Olivia Rodrigo’s name and associate her with the highs and lows of their own stories as they put her records on.
Her ability to embrace messiness and channel her angst into tracks like “Jealousy Jealousy” and “Love Is Embarassing” harnesses the human experience by scratching a certain itch in our minds—particularly that of young women trying to find their place in the world. Undoubtedly, she’s found hers with nearly 46 million monthly listeners on Spotify and Billboard chart toppers that solidified her as a Main Pop Girl—but the crowd at Gov Ball proved that she’s a bona fide rock star.
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