Hazel Cills | December 11, 2023
The last time Olivia Rodrigo performed a Tiny Desk concert, it was two years ago, in a deserted DMV office, back when pandemic precautions meant artists sadly couldn’t play the real Desk. But this year, the singer-songwriter returned, bringing a handful of songs from her wildly fun sophomore album to the NPR Music office. “It’s much cooler to be here,” Rodrigo says. “I was saying earlier, I’ve never been starstruck by a room before.”
Many of the songs on GUTS, which earned a special recommendation on NPR Music’s Best Albums of 2023 list, blow out Rodrigo’s sound into colorful, grungy pop-rock fit for a stadium, like “love is embarrassing,” performed here with Rodrigo on jangly acoustic guitar. But the artist builds her set out with GUTS cuts that fit the intimate setup, like the searing “vampire,” her backup vocalists cooing eerily around each of her lines, or the potent ode to female jealousy, “lacy,” which Rodrigo explains started out as a poetry exercise in a college class. By the end of her set, she’s completely alone at the piano for the sobering “making the bed,” and it’s not difficult to see why she’s one of pop’s most promising rising performers.
SET LIST
“love is embarrassing”
“vampire”
“lacy”
“making the bed”
MUSICIANS
Olivia Rodrigo: piano, guitar
Hayley Brownell: drums
Moa Munoz: bass
Daisy Spencer: guitar
Ashley Morgan: vocals
Gaba: vocals
Julia Gartha: vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
Producers: Suraya Mohamed, Bob Boilen
Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin
Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Elizabeth Gillis, Maia Stern
Audio Assistant: Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez
Tiny Desk Team: Hazel Cills
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann
#nprmusic #tinydesk #oliviarodrigo
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Want to play your own Tiny Desk concert? Unsigned musicians, enter the 2024 Tiny Desk Contest between Jan. 23 and Feb. 21. Learn more: https://npr.org/tinydeskcontest.
Her voice is amazing and very mature for being so young. I can see her continuing to be very successful in the future.
Charlotte Cardinnnnnnnn up next yaaaaa
I’ve become old and poo poo new music, but she’s got it.
Olivia is just so cool. Crazy talented and really making a name for herself.
Vocals on Vampire were KILLER!!!
Making the bed is SO full of emotion, it genuinely made me tear up. Olivia is so talented.
Olivia is a goddess
She has a terrible unedited voice. I like her music, but I wouldn’t listen to any of it pre editing.
I don’t even listen to her music, but this was amazing the way she sang every song with so much emotion really touched me
'love is embarrassing' on 1.5x speed was a nice, rockin accident 😆🤘
❤
canta muy lindo, espero que podamos escucharla en español
Love the purple guitar. OR rocks.
This sucks
Lacy, love is embarrassing and making the bed I’ve been listening to on loop cause of this live performance 🩷
Bring Billie Eilish in for a real tiny desk concert.
I’m here for the second day in a row to hear love is embarrassing live 😍😍
Wow. This version of Vampire smashes everything! The chemistry in the room, chemistry between all of the musicians was PALPABLE
vc é mãe
sua voz traz paz💌💗
Olivia te amoo💗
Liam Gallagher pliss🙏🏼🙏🏼
omg her outfit is the signature one of the french singer Jain !
Anyone else noticed the DRUMMER and the sheer focus and connection with Olivia.
WHO IS THIS PERSON!? 🤨🤨🤨
YOU GREAT OLIVIA RODRIGO
Nececitamos de Kevin kaarl!!
Sho naive
pitchy, dawg
god i love her
John Mayor please 🙏🤗
I became very attracted to this woman lol
i love listening to olivia because hearing her music is such an experience, its like, “wow i’m not alone”. i love making the bed because i tend to self sabotage a lot and it makes me feel like there is something wrong with me but because olivia beautifully put my emotions into lyrics, i understand i am not crazy, i am just human.
Imagine spending months fine tuning a song only for it to sound like Creep
Thing is you can have perfect voice. You can have talent but what separates the chafe from the wheat is those things in common with soul and lyrics. Throw in tinges of love lost blues that goes beyond age. That’s winning hands down. Looking forward to seeing what happens next. 🙌
Even though I feel like I should be too old to enjoy her songs, I still do. Her songs are appealing, but they also include insightful lyrics and clever wordplay. Guts has a ton of hot stuff.
THANK YOU NPR MUSIC! The band, the back up singers, and Olivia! What a great performance. Thanks to the person adjusting her mic stand as well!
I'm so happy Olivia had fun because it was fun for me to watch her play and sing. I enjoyed it when she explained the work and her thoughts on the songs too. This was an entertaining video and I'm jealous of the audience being able to see this in person. Good song titles, good lyrics, and I even watched all of the advertisements LOL Olivia is a wonderful woman and congrats to her continued success!
0:19
love is embarrassing
4:14
vampire
9:25 lacy
13:40
making the bed
That was decent, definitely get fiona apple and regina spektor vibes, she's got a long career ahead of her no doubt
background singers melodizing on lacy was crazy
Hermosa vibra y voz. Me recordó tanto a Alanis.
yeay😍
PLEASE BRING LADY GAGA TO TINY DESK
Honestly if Making the Bed were remixed to focus more on this sort of low-production, quality and piano-focused ballad, it could have been a single
I couldn't keep my eyes from Julia every time she was on screen, star presence.