Olivia Rodrigo Was Rushed Offstage During Her VMAs Performance, But It Was Part of the Show
Olivia Rodrigo has delivered the first award show performance of her Guts era. The singer sang “Vampire” on stage at the MTV VMAs in front of a crowd that included Taylor Swift, whom some fans speculated the song could be about. Rodrigo, of course, addressed that rumor during her recent interview with The Guardian, noting she was a little shocked by it.
“How do I answer this?” she started. “I mean, I never want to say who any of my songs are about. I’ve never done that before in my career and probably won’t. I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing.” She then added, of the Swift theory in particular, “I was very surprised when people thought that.”
On stage at the VMAs, Rodrigo began with a heartfelt, impressive vocal performance of “Vampire” before pieces from her set started toppling over, pyrotechnics fired off erratically, and the camera feed began glitching. Members of the audience were shown curiously looking at the stage, even Selena Gomez seemed confused. But it all turned out to be a very convincing stage trick and an intentional nod to Rodrigo’s “Vampire” music video, which shows her being escorted offstage mid-performance.
Moments later, she picked back up with her song “Get Him Back!,” joined onstage with a troupe of dancers dressed in pink. Wearing a bright red two-piece set, Rodrigo belted out and jumped onstage among them—and she was greeted with roaring applause when she was done. Watch her full set here.
Rodrigo’s appearance at the VMAs comes less than a week after she released her second album, Guts. She spoke to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 about gaining confidence as a performer last week.
“My first two performances ever were the BRITs and SNL, and so I think I felt definitely not prepared for that,” she said. “I think going on tour and night after night being surrounded by so much positive, good energy, I think gave me the confidence and also just repetition and practice to be more comfortable. I think I’m definitely more comfortable on stage now than I was a year ago.”
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