BLEEDING HEART

Olivia Rodrigo’s exuberant yearning.

- AMANDA PETRUSICH

The opening moments of Olivia Rodrigo’s seventy-seven-date Guts World Tour—which began in February and arrived at Madison Square Garden for four sold-out nights in early April—feature a video of the pop star sprinting down a dumpy hallway, then rapping her knuckles on a purple door. Anyone attuned to Rodrigo’s musical disposition knows that whatever is waiting on the other side is probably not virtuous, exactly, but is almost certainly a good-ass time. Last Saturday, as her band slammed out the opening chords of the night’s first song, the punkish, frothing “Bad Idea Right?,” Rodrigo appeared onstage in a silver sequinned miniskirt with a matching bralette and black combat boots. The crowd was instantly united in a kind of lawless exuberance. The feeling in the room was: Let’s give ourselves something to regret in the morning!

Rodrigo, who recently turned twenty-one, is funnier and less fussy than the other pop stars in her echelon. She is not apolitical (she has invited abortion funds to set up information booths at Guts shows, and is donating a portion of the tour’s proceeds to support women’s reproductive health), and she has not cultivated an image of sexlessness, piousness, or self-seriousness. She appears, instead, to revel in pleasure—even when she knows that whatever it is she’s thirsting after will probably get her into trouble.