“I think she’s the most clever songwriter,” Rodrigo said onstage before their performance
Lily Allen and Olivia Rodrigo: together again! On Friday, Rodrigo surprised her Guts world tour crowd in London by bringing out Allen for a duet of the British star’s 2006 classic “Smile,” reuniting the pair after they performed together at Glastonbury Festival in 2022.
“I think she’s the most clever songwriter. And the coolest girl in London,” Rodrigo said onstage Friday. “I think the best day of my whole career was when I got to sing with her at Glastonbury. I absolutely adore her. Will you please give it up for Miss Lily Allen.”
Allen and Rodrigo embraced onstage before performing a duet of the Alright, Still classic as the crowd roared and sang along. Later in the show, Rodrigo referenced one of Allen’s lyrics on the shirt she customizes at the end of each of her shows: “Please don’t stay in touch,” read the text in cursive, nodding at Allen’s “Fuck You” lyrics.
While playing Glastonbury in 2022, Rodrigo welcomed Allen onstage for a duet of “Fuck You,” “dedicated” to the Supreme Court shortly after it overturned Roe v. Wade. “I wanted to dedicate this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who have shown us that at the end of the day, they truly don’t give a shit about freedom,” Rodrigo said onstage at the time. “This song goes out to the justices: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh. We hate you!”
Allen revealed last year that performing “Fuck You” with Rodrigo inspired her to get back into the studio to record new music. “It sparked something in me. It is quite fun,” she said on the Jonathan Ross Show.
Friday also marked a historic day for Rodrigo for a different reason: Her debut album Sour broke the record for the most-streamed album by a female artist in Spotify history, beating the record previously held by Dua Lipa’s Dua Lipa. “Woahhh!! So cool!!! Cannot thank you guys enough,” Rodrigo wrote on Instagram celebrating the news.
Rodrigo has one more night in London before heading to Belgium for a pair of shows there. Her European Guts tour run ends in late June. “Rodrigo cemented her position in pop culture as a generation-defining artist. As a rockstar,” read a Rolling Stone review of the tour’s opening night.