By Lily Jennings
Olivia Rodrigo ★★★★½
Qudos Bank Arena, October 17
There’s a moment during Thursday’s show when Olivia Rodrigo – the 21-year-old pop megastar who’s earned Grammys, multi-platinum albums and billions of streams over the past three years – sits atop a crescent moon that hangs above thousands of screaming fans, many of them wearing her signature colours of purple and red.
It’s the perfect image to sum up her appeal: among the stars where she belongs, but not so far away that you can’t see she’s not all that different from the mostly teenage girls in attendance – myself included – who are drawn to her relatable persona and heartfelt songs.
Olivia Rodrigo’s staging was spectacular.Credit: Edwina Pickles
What makes Rodrigo different from her Disney-star-turned-pop-singer peers, however, is music that’s heavily influenced by ’90s alternative rock – Rodrigo had hero Kim Deal and her band the Breeders as openers on several US dates – and an aversion to being squeaky-clean, with songs about hooking up with exes (bad idea right?) and F-bombs dropped on the regular.
Rodrigo has two modes as a songwriter: heart-on-sleeve balladeer and snotty pop-rocker. Both sides are well-represented at her first of four Sydney shows, although she leans more towards the latter to keep energy levels spiked.
Case in point: during the riff-heavy all-american bitch Rodrigo urges the crowd to “think about someone they really hate” and scream at the top of their lungs. The resulting ear-splitting shriek is so loud it startles my dad to the point he drops his phone.
Olivia Rodrigo’s first Sydney show rocked surprisingly hard.Credit: Edwina Pickles
On stage, each song is presented as a mini movie, with a combination of custom-made videos and costumed dancers bringing the music to vivid life. During pretty isn’t pretty, a track about the unfair beauty standards placed upon women, the dancers parade around with hand mirrors, embodying the torment of Rodrigo’s forlorn lyrics.
Many in attendance would’ve first discovered Rodrigo via the Disney show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and those day-one fans are treated to a rare rendition of the delicate All I Want, which has only been performed once before on this Guts World Tour.
Whether delivering epic ballads (vampire, drivers license, the moving teenage dream) or pop-rock dynamite (get him back!, so american, obsessed), Rodrigo and her all-girl band create what feels like a giant sing-along party with your best friends, where vulnerability and strength are celebrated equally. It’s that sense of shared community and kindness that makes Rodrigo so special, and a role model worthy of the hype and adoration she’s showered with on this night.
Olivia Rodrigo plays at Qudos Bank Arena October 18, 21 and 22.