Olivia Rodrigo Performs at Governors Ball 2025: Greatest Moments

About an hour after The Go-Go’s “We Acquired the Beat” blasted by the mainstage audio system as a part of Rodrigo’s pre-show playlist, who would’ve guessed that one other Eighties traditional would make its means onto her setlist… and with an IRL shock.

Following a shifting efficiency of “favourite crime,” a starstruck Rodrigo launched rock legend David Byrne for a duet rendition of Speaking Heads’ “Burning Down the Home.” Rodrigo and the now 73-year-old rocker, carrying a white tee and crimson overalls (which completely matched Rodrigo’s two-piece set), flawlessly switched off traces of the 1983 smash and fortunately danced across the stage. All through the efficiency, Rodrigo even took half in a few of Byrne’s signature choreo.

After kicking off the ultimate set of the night time together with her GUTS deluxe single “obsessed” adopted by fan-favorite “ballad of a homeschool woman,” Rodrigo slowed it down with what might solely be described as a holy trinity of back-to-back ballads.

Sitting at a grand piano, “Vampire” was the right means for Rodrigo to tee up the trio of slower songs. By the point its climactic bridge hit, the gang’s vocal cords have been warmed up for what was to return: the track that began all of it and her first Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 “drivers license” (Rodrigo stated that she thinks “of my life in earlier than and after this track”). For the ultimate track on this little trio, she went with “traitor” a transparent fan-favorite from her debut album contemplating that the gang was simply as loud, if not louder, than they have been only one track earlier than.

“I wrote this track once I was falling in love with this boy,” Rodrigo cheekily shared with the gang earlier than going into “so american,” a GUTS (spilled) observe that followers imagine was written as a love letter to her boyfriend, English actor Louis Partridge.

“Perhaps you’ll perceive this sense while you’re first falling in love with somebody, and every part you do, you simply consider them,” she continued. “Once I wrote this track, I used to be driving within the automobile, pondering of this particular person, and I began buzzing this refrain, and it changed into this track.” We’ll take the Louvia crumbs.

Aside from a shortened setlist, there have been just a few key variations between Rodrigo’s competition set and final yr’s GUTS tour. For one, the on-screen visuals are barely completely different, though they positively nonetheless match inside the GUTS world.

Her background dancers have been additionally minimize from this gig, giving the highlight to only Rodrigo and her all-female band. She carried out a stripped-back rendition of “fairly isn’t fairly” with simply her strumming her acoustic guitar, and later geared up herself with simply an electrical guitar for a solo efficiency of her heart-wrenching SOUR ballad, “sufficient for you.”

Some encores don’t give what they should give, however Rodrigo’s was not that. It was a pair minutes after 10:30 p.m. when she wrapped up her efficiency of “deja vu” — which gave the impression to be the ultimate track of the night time after Rodrigo exited the stage. That was till a surprising visible of her gracefully sitting in a white slip gown popped up throughout the massive display screen, which was quickly engulfed in digital flames.

By 10:37 p.m., Rodrigo re-emerged, geared up with a crimson megaphone adorning her first and solely outfit change of the night time: a crimson and white cropped baseball tee that learn “New York Metropolis By no means Seemed So Blue.”

The songs within the encore have been simply as satisfying: “brutal,” “all-american b—h,” “good 4 u” and “get him again!”

With him taking the stage simply an hour earlier than her, Rodrigo took a minute out of her set to present a shoutout to her longtime good friend and fellow artist, Conan Grey.

“I like him a lot, he’s my greatest good friend,” she excitedly informed the gang forward of singing “sufficient for you” (a SOUR observe she revealed is her “favourite track she’s ever written”).

Grey delivered a mainstage set full with props and a fancy dress to match the sailor aesthetic of his upcoming album Wishbone, for which he simply launched its first single, “This Track.”

“Have you ever listened to his new track but?” Rodrigo requested the gang, which instantly erupted in screams. “That’s the best reply. I like him a lot and I like enjoying music.”

It grew to become a GUTS tour custom for Rodrigo to guide followers in a primal scream fest throughout her efficiency of “all-american b—h” — and that custom continued for her Gov Ball set’s penultimate track.

“There’s a lot s—t to be pissed off about on the earth as we speak,” she stated earlier than stepping into the track’s bridge. “Once I let you know ‘go,’ I would like you to scream as loud as you’ll be able to and let all of it out. Okay? I would like them to listen to us in f—ing Manhattan.” (The competition takes place exterior the town in Queens, N.Y.).

Most likely channeling their feelings that got here with the delay, downpour, mud and muggy climate that got here earlier within the day, the gang definitely adopted instructions. When Rodrigo tee’d up the screams with the primary line of the bridge and and stated “go,” the stage went fully black — and for a great 10 seconds, all that could possibly be heard have been essentially the most guttural of screams. Not that the remainder of the present wasn’t, however this was a real second of group catharsis.

Encore