Fresh from massive headline slots at Glastonbury and London’s Hyde Park, we head to Denmark’s Roskilde Festival to see one of the biggest artists in the world unleash her rock side and meet the community of fans she has brought along for the ride.
Back in 2021, the quintessential teenage dream turned sour. Armed with a jerrycan of gasoline and a butter-wouldn’t-melt smile, Olivia Rodrigo would burn her demure girl-next-door persona to the ground – and transform into a multifaceted young woman capable of unleashing anger, heartbreak and fury with a bite of eye-rolling attitude and pop-rock riffs.
While Rodrigo’s tender, chart-topping power ballads may have attracted the masses, ‘Good 4 U’ defied any expectations that teenagers should be ‘seen and not heard’ – and it did so with the help of Rodrigo’s most aggressive output to date. But this tease of a heavier sound was just the tip of the iceberg.
While 2021’s ‘Sour’ loosely dabbled with alternative textures (the other major example being the grunge-heavy opener, the Veruca Salt-esque ‘Brutal’), Rodrigo’s 2023 sophomore record ‘Guts’ would finally see her embracing her inner rockstar, balancing ultra-clean ballads with her new love of bruising riffs and scrappy, chaotic production.
Over the last few weeks, Rodrigo has been proving herself on a global stage. Her ‘Guts’ world tour amped up the rocky edge for her live show, Rodrigo routinely collapsing to her knees to perform bursts of high-calibre punk rock riffage on her electric guitar. The biggest names in alt are also happy praise Rodrigo for the versatile, talented artist that she is. From Avril Lavigne thanking Rodrigo for reviving rock ‘n’ roll, to Jack White calling her a “very cool, very real lover of music” and “talented musician”. Just a few weeks ago, The Cure’s Robert Smith even emerged during her Glastonbury set to perform ‘Friday I’m In Love’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’ with her – as well as doing shots with her backstage beforehand.
Tonight, she’s set to headline a totally sold-out Roskilde Festival – and the fans have turned out en masse. From the moment you step foot onto the Danish festival grounds, small groups of ‘Livies’ can be spotted everywhere. A young girl skips along in a purple tutu and butterfly headbands, dragging her parent behind her. A group of teenagers readjust each other’s tiaras and straighten one another’s ‘Obsessed’ sashes. Volunteers at the bar babble on about how they can’t wait to head off tonight to catch the set as they sloppily hand you a beer.
While some fans initially got into Rodrigo’s more poppy tunes, they’re now embracing her rockier edge. “I really only volunteered this year to see Olivia,” one rubbish-picking festival worker explains. “I love all the pop girls like Charli XCX and Tyla, but Olivia is my favourite. She’s probably the most rock artist I enjoy, but I love her so much.”
The sentiment is shared by another local Danish fan, who proudly shows off an Olivia Rodrigo crop top and matching tote bag. “’Good 4 U’ was my favourite song off ‘Sour’ so I was SO excited when I heard ‘Guts’ for the first time,” they grin. “I was so happy she had made more music that sounded like that.”
“So many other fans online, and obviously Olivia herself, have since recommended me tons of bands I now love,” the fan continues eagerly. “Like Paramore – I hadn’t known much about them before. But also Hole, and No Doubt as well… It’s so cool that Olivia is helping fans find all these new artists. It’s like learning about the history of female rock music and rockstars, when you might not have known about it before.”
It’s something that harks back to Jack White’s feelings about Rodrigo. Her love of music is tangible and she’s never quiet about her inspirations, regularly covering many of the artists who inspire her onstage with that complexity and depth of her musical intelligence coming through on her latest tracks.
“I kind of didn’t care about her until my girlfriend showed me ‘Bad Idea Right?’” comments one lad, stood next to his girlfriend in Rodrigo’s signature shade of purple. “I liked the rock sound straight away, it felt so cool, so different… but the lyrics really made me love it. It was so funny to us, because it’s how we got back together; we both kept it a secret from friends, because they didn’t think we should date again. It just made me really like Olivia, because it felt like someone joking about a mistake without trying to hide behind anything.”
Eventually, as the night begins to roll in, the woman of the hour finally emerges. Decked out in a studded purple leather halterneck, matching hotpants, and knee-high boots, she’s the vision of a swaggering Gen Z Rockstar. As she riffs along with her guitarist Emily Rosenfield, unleashing a raw, chaotic version of ‘Obsessed’, it’s clear Rodrigo is in her element. As she loses herself in the noise, she curls into a backbend, still playing her electric, a sight few could have predicted back in 2021.
Soaring forward, the energy only continues to increase. ‘Love Is Embarrassing’ already has that new-wave of punk-rock feel, yet the live setting truly sets the punk edge ablaze as Rodrigo rambles through the lyrical yearning and self-deprecation. Even older cuts like ‘Deja Vu’ feel amplified and hit harder with the kick of the live band. And all of it somehow makes these anthems of insecurity feel effortlessly cool – it’s almost impossible to envision this girl, this firecracker of charm and catchy hooks, could ever doubt herself.
As she rolls into the final leg, ‘All-American Bitch’ sees Rodrigo inviting the crowd to let all their anger out. It’s an aspect of the song metalheads and rock gatekeepers were keen to chastise when ‘Guts’ first dropped – somehow mistaking this harmless display of teenage frustration as an attempt at gutturals, presumably. But, in this moment, everyone is keen to appreciate the opportunity to just let loose.
“Think of something that makes you so angry… and SCREAM!!” she howls, before the field erupts into a prolonged wail of angst. After, everyone sighs in relief – and Rodrigo beams with pride, before sprinting her away across the stage once again, an over-energised bunny running on pure adrenaline and absolutely thriving off of it.
In a few days, Rodrigo will touchdown in Belgium to perform at Rock Werchter festival. If the name of festival doesn’t give it away, it’s a sign of Rodrigo being accepted into the ranks of the rock world – and, if tonight has proved anything, it’s that she’s well and truly on her way to being a definitive rockstar of the next generation.
