{"id":62397,"date":"2025-07-13T14:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T14:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/62397\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T14:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T14:05:10","slug":"pop-perfection-that-rocks-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/62397\/","title":{"rendered":"pop perfection that rocks hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can tell how much Olivia Rodrigo<\/a>\u2019s headline set means to the Mad Cool audience hours before she\u2019s due to hit the stage. When gates open on the third day of the Madrid festival, hordes of young women peg it from the entrance to the barrier, desperate to snag the perfect position from which to watch their pop-rock idol. After the blazing sun has set and a golden moon has risen, those same fans can be seen on the big screens during Rodrigo\u2019s scintillating show, looking like they\u2019re having a biblical experience.<\/p>\n

Today (July 12) at Mad Cool is the latest in a slew of festival headline slots for Rodrigo, including an acclaimed turn at Glastonbury<\/a> just a couple of weeks ago. The spot right at the top of festival line-ups has felt destined for her for some time now, and so far, she\u2019s done nothing but prove she deserves the billing. Tonight is yet more justification of that \u2013 a peppy, powerful performance that mixes punky anthems and pour-your-heart-out emotional ballads.<\/p>\n

\u2018Obsessed\u2019 kicks things off with prowling punk energy before there are early airings for cathartic belters \u2018Vampire\u2019 and \u2018Drivers License\u2019. As the camera pans down to the front rows, the fans who appear on the screens all have one thing in common \u2013 they\u2019re crying and screaming every last word with every ounce of their energy.<\/p>\n

\"\"Olivia Rodrigo at Mad Cool 2025. CREDIT: Javier Bragado<\/p>\n

Rodrigo\u2019s music hits hard because of her knack for crystallising the confusion of youth into short, accessible tunes that stick in the mind. \u2018Bad Idea Right?\u2019 has the Villaverde site united in making excuses for ill-advisedly crawling back to an ex, while \u2018Love Is Embarrassing\u2019 takes the mortifying mistakes you make when you\u2019re trying to figure out the world (and do so coolly) and subverts them into a empowering, regret-free anthem.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas anyone out there ever been in love?\u201d the 22-year-old asks before \u2018So American\u2019. \u201cYou might recognise this feeling \u2013 you know when you\u2019re first falling for someone and you can\u2019t get them out of your head with anything you do?\u201d The crowd in front of her roars back in agreement, confirmation of Rodrigo\u2019s incredibly accurate reflection of a universal experience.<\/p>\n

After an impactful run of bangers \u2013 \u2018Deja Vu\u2019, \u2018Brutal\u2019, \u2018All-American Bitch\u2019 and \u2018Good 4 U\u2019 all taking the energy up yet another notch \u2013 Rodrigo clambers onto a small tower, red megaphone in hand. These are her final moments on the Mad Cool stage \u2013 and the screens once again turn to the adoring fans in front of her. As \u2018Get Him Back!\u2019 begins to play, screams erupt once more, Rodrigo\u2019s importance to her dedicated audience driven home for one last time.<\/p>\n

Olivia Rodrigo played:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Obsessed\u2019
\u2018Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl\u2019
\u2018Vampire\u2019
\u2018Drivers License\u2019
\u2018Traitor\u2019
\u2018Bad Idea Right?\u2019
\u2018Love Is Embarrassing\u2019
\u2018Pretty Isn\u2019t Pretty\u2019
\u2018Happier\u2019
\u2018All I Want\u2019
\u2018Enough For You\u2019
\u2018So American\u2019
\u2018Jealousy, Jealousy\u2019
\u2018Favorite Crime\u2019
\u2018Deja Vu\u2019
\u2018Brutal\u2019
\u2018All-American Bitch\u2019
\u2018Good 4 U\u2019
\u2018Get Him Back!\u2019<\/p>\n

NME is the official media partner of Mad Cool<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can tell how much Olivia Rodrigo\u2019s headline set means to the Mad Cool audience hours before she\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":62398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,50,4000,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-62397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pop","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114846310265341332","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}