The morning of the Guts World Tour’s first night at Madison Square Garden, a perplexing, 4.8-level earthquake tore through New York City. Minutes later, the famed arena tweeted from its official account, “that was just the earth prepping for Olivia Rodrigo tonight.”
That was exactly right, as far as the 21-year-old pop star’s fans were concerned. More than 14,000 of them showed up in purple-hued, sequined droves to watch Rodrigo make her debut at one of the country’s biggest career milestone-marking venues Friday night (April 5), something that’s been a long time coming for the star since she found near-instant global success with Sour in 2021. (Not wanting to “skip steps,” as she told Billboard at the time, the singer stuck to smaller theaters for her first tour in ’22. Now, with a second chart-topping album under her belt thanks to last year’s Guts, Rodrigo is more than ready for not just one, but four sold-out shows at the Garden, the remaining three of which are slated for April 6, 8 and 9.)
Having previously briefly joined Billy Joel at one of his 2022 MSG shows to duet her own hit, “Deja Vu,” as well as “Uptown Girl,” Rodrigo was already a little bit acquainted with the grounds — plus, after being on the road for a month following her kickoff show in Palm Springs Feb. 23, her hour-and-a-half undertaking was already a well-oiled machine by the time she got to New York. Even so, the reigning princess of pop took the stage looking with genuine amazement as her crowd jumped, danced and screamed along to her opening number — “Bad Idea Right?” — making the entire arena pulse, this time without any help from shifting tectonic plates.
From a special guest performance (hello, Noah Kahan!) to a surprise mini High School Musical reunion, see the 8 best moments from the show that followed below.
