It only took 18 minutes to sell the approximately 8,200 tickets for Olivia Rodrigo’s concert at Forest National when they went on sale. The entirety of his first international tour, the “Sour Tour”, is sold-out. The demand was such (computer bugs in the Ticketmaster box office due to a surplus of visitors, endless waiting list, resale of tickets at triple the price, etc.) that the young American artist could certainly have filled larger venues around the world. . But this one prefers not “skip the steps”, as she tells the Los Angeles Times. The date in our capital will nevertheless be the biggest of the entire European tour.
Gen Z idol
His visit to Brussels was more than expected last night. Its first title, “Driver License”, exploded the record of the most streamed song in one day on the platforms and slipped directly to the first place of the Billboard (which is rare for a first single). He now has more than a billion plays on Spotify. Although already known for her role in the series Disney High School Musical: The Musical, the immense success of Olivia Rodrigo could not have been hoped for and planned. We cannot say if this is rather due to the time of its release, in the midst of a pandemic, to the TikTok application on which its song has been shared a lot or thanks to its words on edge describing its first heartbreak.
Son premier album, Sour, which has just celebrated its first anniversary, was able to enjoy the same enthusiasm, both from the public and the media. In just a few months, the 19-year-old artist has transformed into the new idol of Generation Z and the global popstar that everyone is raving about. To announce her coming on stage, the title of One Direction “Olivia” resounds in the room. This is enough to heat up the crowd, which takes up every word in chorus. And when the first guitar riffs of the punk-rock track “Brutal” are heard, the public enters in exaltation. A state that will not leave him throughout the show.
A cathartic experience
After “jealousy, jealousy”, Olivia Rodrigo settles down at the piano. “I don’t know what the rules are for the car license here… But I had to take mine several times!”, she says. Swinging his most famous title, “Driver License”, at the very beginning of the concert turns out to be a rather daring choice. But the young woman manages to maintain a constant intensity over the titles. Standing on the piano, she covers “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne, one of her “favorite artists”, whose inspiration we feel, outfits (skirt with tartan pattern, Doc Martens boots) in a pop-rock musical style of the 2000s.
The Californian teenager grabs her guitar to perform an acoustic medley of two of her tracks (“Enough For You”, “1 step forward, 3 steps back”). Alone on stage, she offers a moment of intimacy and communion with her audience. This one sings all the lyrics, incessantly. Even if it means completely masking the singer’s voice, which we regret. But the show goes beyond a vocal performance. It allows a cathartic experience, a moment of surrender. Sour evokes adolescent emotions, youthful anger, uncontrolled jealousy, the fragility felt at that time. Often discredited or despised, these emotions had their place here.
Despite her status as a new phenomenon, the American manages not to play the superstar. She remains surprisingly sober. Even the scenography is limited, a few lamé curtains and a disco ball, end-of-year ball atmosphere, and confetti for the grand finale on “Good 4 U”. Olivia Rodrigo was only able to offer an hour of concert, her album has only eleven titles. We nevertheless feel privileged to have been able to see it in this configuration and with so much proximity. Before everything got bigger, more staged, more produced.
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