Pop princess Olivia Rodrigo wows Sydney

Pop powerhouse Olivia Rodrigo has continued her epic run of Australian shows, this time leaving Sydney fans screaming for more.

Alt pop princess Olivia Rodrigo was punk naughty but glittery nice at the opening Sydney show of the final leg of her Guts world tour for 2024.

Rodrigo brought edgy guitar-fuelled grit and silver-sequined glam to her first of four sold-out shows at Qudos Bank Arena on Thursday night.

After a week-long charm offensive via her Melbourne shows and promotional run in Sydney this week, Rodrigo got back to her singing day job as the capacity crowd screamed along.

Olivia Rodrigo had the Sydney crowd in the palm of her hand. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Despite being a school night for her mostly school-aged fan base, Rodrigo didn’t waste time being her authentic self when she addressed the crowd ahead of the third song, the monster post modern theatrical drama hit Vampire.

“Welcome to the Guts world tour …

Tonight is going to be a f***ing blast,” she said.

And then her legion of Livies, as her fandom are called, obeyed her command to sing their lungs out, f bombs and all.

The 21-year-old pop princess had total command of the stage. Picture: Jonathan Ng

As the big screen shared home movies of the cute little ballerina with aspirations to perform, who would become a global star as the fairytale decrees, Rodrigo begged the crowd’s indulgence of Teenage Dream, a song she recorded just two years ago when she was 19.

Switching up the costume from silver cheerleader skirt to a black sequin bra and shorts and flanks of dancers, Rodrigo sounded like The Cure on Pretty Isn’t Pretty but looked totally 80s pop when she burst into Love Is Embarrassing.

Olivia Rodrigo wraps up her Guts world tour after her Sydney run of shows. Picture: Jonathan Ng

It’s a wonderfully weird show in that respect; Rodrigo is pitching for alt-rock cred while dressing up her emo anthems in undeniable pop melody ear worms. A winning formula repeated across the decades since The Runaways perfected it.

And as with all great pop, the young women and girls know where it’s at. How they love to sing to those tortured epic ballads like Drivers License and Making the Bed and shout out Deja Vu and Good 4 U.

Rodrigo pulls most of the modern pop concert levers – the roving above-the-stage crescent Moon during Logical and an acoustic set sitting cross-legged on the floor alongside her guitarist.

The 21-year-old Olivia Rodrigo has become one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. Picture: Jonathan Ng

And like all pop shows, there’s an inevitable disruption of momentum when she delivered her scripted song intros.

Yet for all of its conventions – and the fact the Guts show is a well-oiled machine after eight months traversing the globe – this thoroughly lovely pop natural with the F bomb count, in-jokes and bratty girly chat makes these fangirls, and boys and lots of girldads, believe it’s all for them, for one night only.

That’s a skill in the TikTok era, particularly as it’s her first trip to Australia since she rapidly ascended the pop charts – and has remained welded onto the top 50s of everything – in 2021 with Drivers License and debut album Sour.

Rodrigo wraps her Australian tour with her final shows for the year in Sydney on Friday, Monday and Tuesday.

Originally published as Pop princess Olivia Rodrigo wows Sydney