Olivia Rodrigo hopes audiences “really scream” at her world travel film ‘Guts’
While performing “All-American Bitch,” her song about the unattainable standards young women are held to, Olivia Rodrigo, the 21-year-old Disney star turned certified rock star, turned around and planted his Doc Marten boots in the ground, asserting his claim on stage with the declaration: “I know where me and this is it!” Moments later, she invited the crowd to join her in communal rage. “Here’s the deal: Right now I want you to think about something or someone that really pisses you off, and when the lights go out, you’re going to scream as loud as you can and let it all out!”
What Rodrigo summoned was a high-pitched primal roar that echoed throughout the house and emphasized that the inferno was indeed a teenage girl. It’s a moment captured in her new Netflix concert special Olivia Rodrigo: Intestinal World Tour, out on Tuesday, it perfectly represents her musical ethos. From her punk-rock position, she invites her fans into their true selves, especially women and girls, and gives them the space to feel the range of emotions that Rodrigo Very deeply written, from heartbreak to anger. “I feel like it’s a really special sense of community and I’m happy that people can come and feel like they can scream, cry, jump, stomp and do whatever,” she said. they want to do it.” Vanity fair from her home in Los Angeles. “I hope that it positively impacts their lives in some way because I know watching it really positively impacts mine.”
It was this type of connection at her live performances that the Grammy Award-winning artist had in mind when she began writing her second album, Intestine, back in 2022. “I wanted to make an album that you could dance to and scream to and songs that could fill an arena like that,” she said. With pop-punk, guitar-driven tracks like “Bad Idea, Right?” and “Vampire,” Rodrigo’s vision of a bigger and louder live show became a reality as she ventured into the biggest venues and audiences of her career on the Intestine tour. As evidenced by the concert’s ambitious creative direction — which includes an electronic live band, a group of dancers and a floating moon — no idea is too big. “It’s a creative person’s dream to be able to be like, ‘You know what? I want a big shiny moon flying around the room’ and people will tell you, ‘Yeah, there it is,’” she said. “It’s a crazy phenomenon and I’m lucky to experience it.”
Giving people the opportunity to see a concert has always been important to Rodrigo. “I’d go out for coffee before a show and people would say, ‘Oh, I really wanted to come tonight, but I couldn’t get a ticket.’ That always makes me really sad,” she said. But now, Rodrigo’s Netflix concert special, which includes two hometown shows in Los Angeles and includes a special performance of “Hot to Go!” by the tour opener turned phenom Chappell Roan, giving everyone a front row ticket to the show, whether it’s your first time attending or you’re tuning in to relive memories.
If you are a part of Intestine tour around the world this past year, you know it’s a celebration of girlhood in all its forms, from sparkles and bows to leather, lace and everything in between. Among the audience are young girls who admire Rodrigo, women her age who grew up with her, and older women who see a part of themselves in her. “One of the greatest honors I’ve had on tour is being able to look out into the audience and see all the girls who have been influenced by my music and the things I have to say,” Rodrigo said. ”.
In some emotional songs, like the breakup ballad “Traitor,” she looks at the audience and sees it all reflected back at her. “There’s always some 6 or 7 year old girl screaming, crying, screaming along to the lyrics, and I think it’s funny because you’ve probably never held someone’s hand and you’ve never held someone’s hand. Now have a relationship. Yet there was still that emotional depth and heightened feeling that I witnessed every night,” Rodrigo said. “I think it’s amazing and to see different generations of girls coming together, it reminds me how much more similar we all are than we think. It gives me hope.”
Rodrigo’s live performance, bridging the gap between girlhood and womanhood (coincidentally, the singer-songwriter turned 21 on the tour’s opening night), was the first concert of many young fan, an experience that Rodrigo says she remembers vividly from her own life. “It was surreal for me to be that way to other people and play that role in their lives,” Rodrigo said. “I would love to inspire someone to pick up a guitar or start playing the piano and writing songs. I thought that was the be all, end all. That is the greatest achievement one can achieve in my work.”
