Olivia Rodrigo: ‘A breakup can be an opportunity to redirect your life’

This story is taken from the summer 2026 issue of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from June 5. Pre-order a copy of the magazine here.

Olivia Rodrigo is growing up. While she’s still the same young woman with big feelings and a penchant for babydoll dresses, the 23-year-old appears much more self-assured than the anxious adolescent of SOUR and GUTS when we meet to discuss her new album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. (Ironically, she seems happier too.) She’s speaking to me from her native Los Angeles, her cherubic face beaming as she tells me about her morning: mainly interviews and signing vinyls ahead of the much-anticipated release. The record is about her first “adult relationship” – likely her romance with English actor Louis Partridge, rumoured to have ended in late 2025. She tells me she finished making the record in March. “I’m still so close to it,” she says, adding that she’s ready to put it out into the world now. “I’m excited for it to not be ‘mine’ any more.”

Rodrigo kicked off this new era in April with the release of “drop dead” – not a vengeful “fuck you” to an ex-lover à la “good 4 u” or “vampire”, but an effervescent, synthy love song about the giddiness of sensing you’re on the precipice of a great relationship. “I wanted to capture that feeling of meeting someone you really like for the first time, and all of the excitement and nerves and anxiety that comes along with that,” she explains. Days after its release, she made a surprise appearance at Coachella, gambolling on stage in a pink leather bra and low-rise jeans to join pop ingenue Addison Rae for the song’s first live performance (after a quick duet of “Headphones On”). The crowd – often derided for being disengaged – went wild.

Fans and critics alike have been champing at the bit to hear OR3 – and little wonder, given Rodrigo’s extraordinary trajectory. Her ascent was lightning-fast, catalysed by her debut single “drivers license”, a stirring ballad about the intensity of first heartbreak. Diaristic yet deeply resonant – a potent blend which has come to characterise her work – the track smashed the record for the most single-day streams for a (non-Christmas) song on Spotify, vaulting a 17-year-old Rodrigo straight to the apex of the music industry in early 2021. “It was a crazy, crazy time,” she reflects.

Her debut, SOUR, was the most-streamed album of 2021, going on to become Spotify’s most-streamed album by a female artist ever – a position it holds to this day – leapfrogging industry behemoths like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Her sophomore album GUTS was no slump, either. Its namesake world tour, attended by 1.6 million people and grossing over $200m across 101 shows, remains the most successful tour of any artist born in the 21st century. Last summer, she headlined Glastonbury just three years after her first appearance at the festival, The Cure’s Robert Smith in tow as her surprise guest. So colossal is the scale of her achievements that her three Grammy awards, four MTV Video Music Awards and seven Billboard music awards feel like footnotes in comparison.

GUTS closed with a howling refrain that epitomised her fear of growing up and out of being a wunderkind – “They all say that it gets better, but what if I don’t?” – and, as she stands poised to embark on a new chapter, it seems like a good time to ask if she still feels the same way. “Oh my God, things have got so much better,” she says, laughing. “But I remember the fear that they wouldn’t. I was really young when SOUR came out, and I was labelled this ‘precocious kid’, and I felt if I lost that I wouldn’t be as impressive anymore. But I actually feel like I’m getting better at making music as I get older. I’m inspired by more complex things and have more references to draw on. So I think that fear has been quelled.” Then, an endearingly self-effacing caveat: “I’m still quite young, though. I don’t have it all figured out.”

I was at Glastonbury last year and loved your set. What was it like to sing with Robert Smith?

Olivia Rodrigo: Ugh, dream come true. That was the best weekend of my life, hands down. It was one of the happiest and proudest moments of my career. I adore Robert – he’s such a genius. The fact that he was so generous to show up and do it with me is just beyond me... I’m so grateful to him to this day. I love those [Cure] songs too and being able to sing them with him in front of that amazing crowd was the stuff of dreams. No other way to put it. I’ve hung out with him for a few nights in the studio. He’s nocturnal – he only works when it’s dark out – which is awesome.

It seems like you have a lovely friendship. Has he given you any good advice over the last few months?

Olivia Rodrigo: I was lamenting to him about impostor syndrome and he said, ‘When you look out at the crowd at a concert, people either sing the songs back at you, or they don’t. You either connect with people, or you don’t. It is what it is. Don’t make it about you.’ That gave me a little confidence boost. [Instead of thinking] “I’m not this, I’m not that,” it’s all about connection. My favourite song to play sometimes is “traitor”, because when I look at the audience, I see these girls crying and holding each other’s hands and having this cathartic experience. That makes me so happy – to see them feeling safe enough to express that feeling in public.

Are there any other artists that you’d like to work with one day?

Olivia Rodrigo: I’ve been listening to a lot of PJ Harvey lately. And Fiona Apple. I think those two were just doing something so special and raw and unfiltered. I would love to meet and hang with them.

I often see people saying they would love for you to collaborate with Sabrina Carpenter... Do you think that could ever happen?

Olivia Rodrigo: [laughs] Oh, gosh. I mean, I’m open... I’m open to all types of collaboration.

Personally, I would love for you to collaborate with Lorde.

Olivia Rodrigo: Oh yeah, she’s amazing. Pure Heroine definitely informed the way I think about songwriting. I love the new record she put out.

“All the best love songs have an element of sadness or longing or fear in them”

Are there any new experiences you’ve had since GUTS that you’ve written about on you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love?

Olivia Rodrigo: This album is about my first time being in an adult relationship; it’s me discovering what romantic love looks like in real time. I’ve been in relationships before that were really exciting and tumultuous in a teenage way, but this was my first time being in a real, “big girl” relationship. And when you’re in an intimate relationship, it holds up a mirror and shows you parts of yourself that you would never normally see. That was an endless source of inspiration – something that I’m still mining.

Was it challenging to write about love from a more joyful place?

Olivia Rodrigo: For sure. That was the initial challenge of the album. Fiona Apple once said, ‘When I’m happy, why would I want to stop what I’m doing and sit down at the piano?’ which I think is funny and very true. But all of the best love songs or poems have an element of sadness or longing or fear in them. There’s even an element of anxiety in “drop dead” – like, ‘Oh God, I hope this person likes me.’ Even in our most joyous moments, there’s always this thought in the back of your head: ‘Is this gonna last forever?’ That’s the dichotomy of life. The scale is always balancing itself out.

In terms of the album’s sound, are there any artists or groups or specific eras that inspired you?

Olivia Rodrigo: I was listening to a lot of post-punk: The Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees... Hopefully it translated. I wanted it to sound like how it feels to fall in love; string arrangements that are like your heart swelling, or the ups and downs of having a crush on someone.

What do you think is the best way to meet someone?

Olivia Rodrigo: Through friends, for sure. Because then they can be like, ‘I know this person, they’re not a crazy stalker serial killer, trust me.’ And you’ll already have so much in common... that’s definitely the best way. I’ve never met someone in a real meet-cute way. I always picture sitting next to a cute guy on an airplane or something and being like, ‘What book are you reading? Oh, my God, I’m reading that book too!’ But unfortunately, that’s never happened to me.

What would be your dream first date?

Olivia Rodrigo: Something simple. I would love to go to dinner and then to a comedy show. I love watching improv and standup; I’m always really impressed by people who are able to do that because it’s just so out of my wheelhouse. So dinner, a comedy show, and then maybe ice cream after.

There’s been a lot of speculation about your relationship status [Rodrigo was recently pictured with Geese frontman Cameron Winter, after a rumoured split from Louis Partridge]. Do you think that fans will find answers in the album?

Olivia Rodrigo: There are a lot of different feelings in the album; I think that’s one of my favourite things about it. There’s a song for someone who’s going through any stage of a relationship. I mean, I never talk about my personal life in interviews or on any public forum, so I guess the music is where people would go to deduce things. But, you know, it’s just a song at the end of the day.

As you get older, do you think heartbreak gets easier or harder?

Olivia Rodrigo: I think it gets easier... I don’t know, talk to me in two years and maybe I’ll have gone through the worst heartbreak ever. But I just feel like heartbreak will never be as bad as it was when you were 17 years old. That breakup that I went through when I was 17... oh my God, nothing will ever be that tough ever again. Hopefully! Maybe I’m speaking very naively. But I do feel that with every kind of rejection – whether in love or a work thing, a friend thing or whatever – I’m taking stuff less personally as I get older. As you grow and have more experiences, it starts to feel OK.

Are there any specific things that you do to pick yourself back up when you’re going through a breakup? Do you have any advice to share?

Olivia Rodrigo: Gosh, it’s like the blind leading the blind! I’m not, like, Mrs Relationship. I’m not super sage and wise. But I do think that being with your friends is best. I don’t know what I would have done when going through hard times if I didn’t have great friends. I also think going through a breakup can be a really awesome opportunity to redirect your life in a [way] that feels more aligned with who you are. That’s such a beautiful part of being in a relationship. Even if it doesn’t last forever and you don’t get married, it’s so worthwhile. You never learn more about yourself through any other experience. It’s a very raw thing.

I saw a rumour that the album was meant to come out in February, but you ended up pushing it back and changing the direction a little. Is there any truth to that?

Olivia Rodrigo: Making albums takes a really long time. I initially thought I was going to put the single out in February and the album in June, but I just wanted to get everything really shored up before I put [the single] out. Sometimes you just need a little time and space and perspective.

You’ve deviated from the four-letter titles with the new album. Was that a conscious decision?

Olivia Rodrigo: Yeah, but I wasn’t like, ‘I need to break out of this because I’m this age now’ and blah, blah, blah. I just think the title captures what I was trying to go for: the pitfalls of being in love. It is a little bit of a mouthful... but it’s worth it. I’m obsessed with the title.

I love M&S. Percy Pigs are my favourite. And they have these buckets of chocolate-
covered cornflakes that are so good

Did you consider any other titles? A lot of fans thought it was going to be called Love or Luck.

Olivia Rodrigo: I knew it was going to be this for a really long time. It was something that Dan [Nigro, Rodrigo’s producer] said to me in the studio. I was having a conversation with him and he said, ‘You seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to go for.’

You’ve always spoken up for causes you believe in, [from reproductive rights to Black Lives Matter and Gaza]. Is that important to you?

Olivia Rodrigo: I think part of being an artist is sharing how you feel with other people. I don’t have a political science degree, I’m not the most educated person on planet Earth, but I like to try and stay up to date on things and share how I feel.

I saw you called out ICE for using “all-american bitch” in one of their videos. What were you doing when you found out that they’d used your song?

Olivia Rodrigo: I was just scrolling on my phone. It was so deeply disturbing to see that propaganda, and the fact it was my song in there made me feel even more enraged. What they’re doing is so awful and barbaric and cruel. I am really sad to be in a country that thinks that’s OK.

What was it like to play a concert in Manila on the GUTS world tour [in 2024]? That was your first time in the Philippines, right?

Olivia Rodrigo: Yeah, it was. That was a wonderful experience. Filipino people are amazing singers. The karaoke they do is insane. I remember taking my [in-ear monitor] out and hearing people sing “drivers license” back to me; I was like, ‘Woah, the mic should be pointed at you guys, I’m the worst singer in the Philippines right now!’

Do you have a go-to karaoke song?

Olivia Rodrigo: “Dancing Queen” or any of the ABBA songs. I also really like “Bohemian Rhapsody”, because you can do it with your friends and do all the different parts.

Have you ever been to ABBA Voyage in London?

Olivia Rodrigo: Yes! I went with my best friend, Iris. We got so drunk. We were 19 so we were like, ‘Wow, we’re in London, they’ll give us drinks!’, because we weren’t of age in America. We were losing our minds. But the show was great; those songs are so evergreen.

You seem to have a real affinity with London.

Olivia Rodrigo: I’m the best version of myself when I’m there. I wrote lots of the album in London; lots [of it] was inspired by my time there. Maybe it’s because it rains so much that all you want to do is be inside with the guitar and write. I spent some time in Manchester a few years ago and it was so rainy I was like, ‘No wonder so many great bands come out of Manchester!’

A breakup can be an opportunity to redirect your life

Is there anything you pick up when you’re in the UK that you can’t get in the US?

Olivia Rodrigo: I love M&S. Percy Pigs are my favourite. And they have these little buckets of chocolate-covered cornflakes that are so good. Colin the Caterpillar is so good too. English chocolate is just so much better. Cadbury’s is a million times better than a Hershey’s bar; it’s not even a competition.

What do you do in your spare time? If you had a whole free Sunday, what would you do?

Olivia Rodrigo: I’m really into yoga these days. So I would probably wake up, go to yoga, get brunch with my friends, go to the beach... and honestly, on my best day ever, I would write a really good song. Then go to the movies, eat dinner at the movie theatre. That’s my perfect day. I like reading a lot too, it’s obviously very inspiring as a songwriter. I’m reading The Color Purple right now, that’s really good. I also read this book called Abortion by Jessica Valenti – anyone who’s interested in protecting our reproductive freedoms should read it. And I recently read Simple Passion, by Annie Ernaux. Have you read it?

Yes! I love it.

Olivia Rodrigo: Honestly, it inspired a lot of my album. There’s one song in particular about that feeling of liking someone so much that you just feel kind of miserable and insane, like a disease you can’t shake.

Speaking of going to the movies – do you have a favourite? Or a Letterboxd top five?

Olivia Rodrigo: Oh yeah, let’s see... Gone Girl. The Worst Person in the World. The Virgin Suicides. Bridesmaids – so funny. And Twilight.

A lot of films with angsty, angry women.

Olivia Rodrigo: I’m consistent, what can I say?

Do you think you’d ever go back to acting?

Olivia Rodrigo: Yeah! I love telling stories, I love expressing emotions in my songs, and if there was a role that was exciting to me, narratively, I think that’d be awesome. Who knows if I’d be good at it these days, but it would be fun to tap into that part of myself [again].

You seem pretty well-adjusted for a girl so famous. What do you do to stay grounded?

Olivia Rodrigo: The people you hang around with are important. My friends are really honest with me sometimes – they’ll just be like, ‘No, that’s not good, don’t do that.’ And I have really awesome parents, too. I think I lucked out on the parent lottery. They have always been a really safe, stable resource for me. I also just really love what I do. I think that, as long as it comes from a place of passion and excitement and not from a place of ‘I need to do this so people like me’, that’s the recipe for success and happiness. I try to remember that that’s what it’s really all about.

Hair Dylan Chavles at MA+ Group, make-up Jezz Hill at MA+ Group using Lancôme, nails Yoko Sakakura at A-Frame, movement direction Ash Rucker, lighting Byron Nickleberry, photographic
assistants Austin Durant, Carolin Schild, styling assistants Jannis Jelto Witzel, Chantz Norris, tailoring Hasmik Kourinian, digital operator Michael Preman, production Anna Blundell at Connect the Dots, executive producer Wes Olson, production management Nicole Morra, production assistants Cameron Hoge, Khari Cousins, Fiona Tagliente, Tchad Cousins, post-production Two Three Two, casting Greg Krelenstein at gk-ld