Olivia Rodrigo, Glastonbury Festival, review: Monster show that puts rock royalty on notice

Glastonbury’s youngest Pyramid Stage headliner delivered a monster set that crossed the best of old rock values with contemporary pop energy. 22-year-old Olivia Rodrigo came to conquer. She brought out the big guns, all the fireworks, pyro, smoke, illuminated beach balls ... and goth legend Robert Smith.

On Saturday night, old Neil Young sang that “rock and roll will never die” to a devoted but dwindling audience. Well, if rock does have a hope of surviving it will be this new generation of pop punk girls who keep it alive. There are arguably bigger young stars around, such as Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish, but Rodrigo’s triumphant Glastonbury set showed she has the generation-spanning appeal and star-powered determination to take this to the limit.

She is armed with big, smart, super-catchy power-pop songs that she sings with melody and emotion. She plays piano and electric guitar, at least when she’s not stomping around the stage in her short dress and big boots like she owns every inch of it.

Rodrigo dominated the stage, playing guitar, piano and singing with emotion - Invision

There was a huge audience but the female presence was particularly strong. I was surrounded by young girls (and their mothers) singing every word with every inflection. They lit up the field with their phone lights during vindictive ballad Happier, and roared with delight as her all-female five-piece band’s lead guitarist ripped out a Brian May-level Queen-style solo.

AdvertisementAdvertisement#«Rmekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R16ekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe

Rodrigo left more experienced headliners in the dust. Alanis Morissette may have been an inspiration for this new wave of boldly lyrical female pop rockers, but compared to her festival set of old-fashioned rock wailing and shaggy arrangements, this was a sleek master class. Charli XCX might be sparkly insisting that criticising her for using autotune and miming to backing track is “like, the most boring take ever” but her production was solipsistic and narrow compared to the expansiveness and dynamism Rodrigo was able to bring with a characterful live rock band. Such excellent musicianship gives a whole extra dimension, not to mention another set of tools to entertain her audience.

And compared to the confusing archness of Friday night headliners the 1975, Rodrigo is refreshingly straight down the line, determined to do her very best to give the audience what they want.

Star performed in Union Jack mini shorts - Samir Hussein

Dressed for her encores in Union Jack mini shorts, she made all the right crowd pleasing remarks about how honoured she was to perform at the world’s greatest festival, and how much she loves British pub culture, sticky toffee pudding, and British boys. The way she looked at Cure leader Robert Smith in awed delight suggested she was sincere about her love of Anglo rock music as they played joyful duets of his 80s classics Friday I’m in Love and Just Like Heaven.

Olivia Rodrigo duetted with goth legend Robert Smith - Samir Hussein/WireImage

It seemed like a symbolic moment, a passing of the torch from an older generation to a new one. Glastonbury’s youngest star delivered the headline set of Britain’s most venerable festival, and probably helped ensure it has a future when the old guard shuffle off the stage.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.