Gen-Alpha’s new multi-genre ‘pop rock’ princess, and why hers is the concert of my dreams
Originally published in TheDiarist.Ph
Olivia Rodrigo is someone whose music just gets the teenage experience.
Which is funny to say because her debut album, Sour, came out when I was already 21. But don’t think that I don’t vividly remember the awkwardness, the social stumbling, and the huge amounts of anxiety that came with teenhood. Rodrigo’s heartfelt lyrics and her creative choices in the recording booth resonated with me, even when she was only 17 when writing and recording the album. drivers license was the first song I heard, and though I wasn’t going through a breakup at the time, I couldn’t help but sing along to it as if I going through my own heart-wrenching breakup.
The music of Sour felt so polished at a time when music was (and still is) getting shorter just to optimize streams on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. It didn’t feel like anything but a polished, well-written album. Great music for the sake of great art. You could feel how she poured her heart into every song (especially given the popular notion that her album is a “no skip” album). In this era of artists who chase exorbitantly higher and higher numbers, the streams and awards she received for just creating something great were well deserved. Plus, her feat proves that there is still a market for music song that’s longer than three minutes.
Announcements of her GUTS Tour Experience dates weren’t all that exciting to me at the time. I’d been busy, and planning out things was difficult, thanks to my job at the time. So I wasn’t sure if I could make it even if I bought tickets—steep price. It would be sheer stress to have to unload tickets so close to show date. However, when her ticket prices were announced—only 1,500PhP, my friends and I jumped on that chance immediately. We designated the one with the fastest internet to secure the goods. It would have been no loss to us, who were used to losing out on high-demand concert tickets; we weren’t too hopeful. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst, as they say.
“WERE GOING TO SEE OLIVE-IA!!!” was the first message I saw at 10:30 a.m. that fateful day. I screamed in glee and pranced about my room, excitedly chatting with friends about how our MVP of a friend secured the tickets and thanking him profusely for fighting through the crazy queue. Tickets were secured, and now it was all about getting there to enjoy the concert.
And, oh man, was it a journey to get there.
Philippine Arena truly is a different beast to drive to. My first time in that arena, I was fortunate enough to have a driver so that I wouldn’t stress. But with four adults, two of whom could drive, we thought it better just to assign one person to drive, and the other to drop us home post-concert. It just seemed more fun that way!
It wasn’t, not at least if you were sorely mistaken, like we were, in believing that we could get to the arena in a timely manner without traffic. Hear me out. Olivia’s concert would be my second time in the arena, and I wasn’t keen on waiting four hours in the concert grounds. But who would think that waiting four hours in the concert grounds was significantly better than more than three hours in traffic? Not us, that’s for sure.
Cardinal rule of Concerts #1: It’s always better to be early.
A concert at Philippine Arena is a whole day-to-late night kind of thing anyway. So just allot a whole day to it! Bring a picnic blanket, hang about, make friends, and don’t be like us and underestimate concert traffic.
Long story short, we were late and missed a couple of songs.
But the stress melted away when we were finally seated and settled down to enjoy her songs. We were immediately immersed in the vibe, and sang our hearts out even on the way up to our Lower Box B seats.
Olivia Rodrigo knows how to stage a concert. Being a theater kid myself, I know when someone is one’s best self onstage, and Olivia truly has it! Her charisma was felt even from hundreds of meters away. Her voice was as clear as a songbird, and we could feel almost every emotion she poured into her songs. I say almost—as happy as I am that she seems to be in a happy relationship, there was something about her singing those heart-wrenching songs that hit me differently. It’s arbitrary! But knowing fully that she’s in a seemingly happy relationship does change the meaning of those songs (no fault of Ms. Rodrigo, of course). I say seemingly, cause it’s not as if I know her personally.
At the end of the day, it was a cathartic experience being able to sing along with an artist who resonates with me so deeply, sing along in an obnoxiously loud volume with thousands of other fans—with some odd influencers filming themselves with their camera flashes on…
There is something magical about Olivia Rodrigo’s music that hits me like no other concert I’ve attended this year. The Laufey concert also resonated deeply, but I felt like I was in an orchestra concert, more so a pop concert, so I found it hard to sing along without disturbing those around me—fair enough! We all paid to hear Laufey sing, not our seatmate. NewJeans was great, but so short-lived— they were onstage for 45 minutes at most.
But Olivia’s concert felt like the concert of my dreams! I knew every single song and every bit of the lyrics, harmonies, and melodies. The atmosphere was such that I felt no shame singing her songs out loud, the same way the majority of the people around us did. And we could even dance as if no one was watching. Olivia Rodrigo’s concert was an outlet to scream out all our feelings and stress— all our teenage trauma.
All in all? Thank you, Olivia Rodrigo. Thank you for your music. Your Disney girl sing-song words of encouragement all throughout the concert. And for being Gen-Alpha’s new multi-genre “pop rock” princess. Oh, and I guess for also being an incredible representation of Filipinos on a global stage. Definitely can’t forget that!
