Olivia Rodrigo Rocks Out to ‘Guts’ During ‘Cathartic’ Today Show Performance
What better way for Livies to wake up on Guts release day than to a Today Show performance? On Friday morning, Olivia Rodrigo visited 30 Rock to perform “Vampire” and “Get Him Back” from her new album. She also sang her hits “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U.”
“I’ve been working on it for so long and living with it for so long, so today is really cathartic,” Rodrigo told Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager. “It was definitely a lot of pressure coming off the crazy success that Sour had but I think I just try to write songs I would like to hear on the radio. I didn’t try to beat anything or follow anything up.”
During her performance of “Vampire,” fans could be heard in the background singing along to the Guts single’s lyrics, even singing the explicit “fame-fucker” line to back Rodrigo’s TV clean “dream-crusher.”
Rodrigo also premiered “Get Him Back!” — one of Guts‘ standouts — during the concert as her fans sang along to the track’s silly lyrics. During an interview portion between songs, Rodrigo told the Today Show hosts about taking poetry classes in college to help aid her songwriting between albums.
“It definitely aided my songwriting a lot,” she said. “I feel really lucky I got to do that.”
Rodrigo also played “Good 4 U” and “Drivers License” from Sour to a jumping crowd that knew all the lyrics.
Following the release of Guts, Rodrigo shared a letter to her fans on social media. “Today is the day!! I feel so many feelings. I feel excited, nervous, proud, but mostly I feel so grateful,” she wrote on Instagram Friday, while thanking her producer Dan Nigro.
She added, “I feel immensely grateful for everyone who has generously supported me over the past few years. Thank you to everyone who has listened and streamed and been soo kind.”
A Rolling Stone review of Guts by Rob Sheffield praised the album as an Instant Classic. “Olivia Rodrigo might not have her awkward teenage blues all figured out just yet,” Sheffield wrote. “But all over Guts, she proves that she’s a voice that’s here to stay and a songwriter built to last.”