"If you're one of those self-satisfied old bores who thinks that music doesn't mean as much to younger generations as it does to you, you're flat-out wrong, and here's the proof." Olivia Rodrigo dazzles in the summer sun at BST Hyde Park

Olivia Rodrigo gazes out across the 60,000 crowd standing in the late evening sunshine in the capital's largest royal park, and spots a fan holding aloft a homemade placard featuring the words: "We're wearing diapers".

"Wait, are you really wearing diapers?" she asks incredulously, momentarily and understandably thrown.

Apparently, they are indeed, so keen were the sign holders to anchor themselves to a prime spot to see the Californian superstar. That's dedication for you. It's also gross, particularly in this blazing heat, but hey, we're not here to judge, so you go queen/king, do you!

Perhaps one day the excellent Florence Road will inspire this level of devotion, if that's not a terrifyingly off-putting prospect for them at this early stage. Only a small fraction of the assembled crowd walk over to the site's tiny, cute Birdcage Stage to check out the young County Wicklow quartet, but those who do secure some bragging rights for the future, and are rewarded with a confident, composed performance from Ireland's next stars-in-waiting, fronted by vocalist/guitarist Lily Aron. The band's debut EP, Fall Back, was released only one week ago, but the riff-heavy Figure It Out, the acoustic guitar-driven Caterpillar and the set's brilliant centre-piece Heavy will be sung loudly back at them by captivated crowds for years to come.

If Florence Road, or those at Warners responsible for managing their future, were to seek out a case study on how to handle the pressures, expectations and potential pitfalls of negotiating life in the modern day music industry they could do worse than to analyse the rise and rise of The Last Dinner Party. When the London-based quintet were given the opportunity to play a BST Hyde Park show in July 2022 on the support bill beneath The Rolling Stones, it was an affirmation of their status as British music's Next Big Thing. And, to be fair, they've barely put a foot wrong since, topping the BBC's Sound of 2024 poll, bagging the BRIT's Rising Star award, then scoring a number one album with Prelude To Ecstasy which has sold over 100,000 copies in the UK alone.

It's to their credit that they still exhibit the same energy and excitement, floating and twirling across the Great Oak Stage as Sinner, On Your Side and My Lady Of Mercy sparkle in the sunshine. Rather sweetly, Albanian keyboardist Aurora Nishevci dedicates Gjuha (sung in her native tongue) to her grandfather, who's seeing her band live for the first time, but today's highlight, as ever, is the fabulous, fearless and fierce Nothing Matters, one of the finest, most individual, singles of the decade. Roll on TLDP album two.

If you're resident in England's Home Counties, and noticed a complete absence of white girls aged between 8 and 16 in your area on Friday evening, don't panic: they were all here, every last one of them, wearing shiny, spangly dresses and pink cowboy hats, and squealing like banshees who've over-done it on the BuzzBallz and Haribo. And from the moment Olivia Rodrigo steps onstage, flanked by her fabulously talented, cool-as-fuck band, she is officially England's new People's Princess. And if there's something weirdly surreal about seeing thousands of primary school kids screaming, "I'm out right now, and I'm all fucked up" at the top of their lungs, you certainly can't fault their utter dedication to ensuring that this is going to be the best, wildest and most memorable night of their young lives so far.

I can remember the exact moment I first heard Olivia Isabel Rodrigo. In early 2021, I was sitting in a north London hairdressing salon, awaiting my turn, when a song came on the radio that was so strikingly good that, probably for the only time that year, I quietly muttered, "Siri, what's this song?" into my phone. That song, Drivers License, went on to top the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and made Rodrigo, at 18, the youngest artist ever to top that chart: her debut single, it has now racked up 2.5 billion plays on Spotify. Not a bad way to launch a career, and she's never looked back.

Bearing in mind that she only has two albums to draw upon, 2021's Sour, and 2023's GUTS, Rodrigo's BST setlist features a ridiculous amount of gold standard bangers: the outrageously good piano ballad Vampire, the unapologetically psychotic, riff-heavy Obsessed, the playful So American, the brutally honest journal scrawl of Jealousy, Jealousy among them. There are darker-then-they-first-appear tales here of predatory older men and rubbish exes, self-loathing, cyber-stalking, paranoia, abandonment and anxiety, which hopefully are not yet relatable for the younger audience members here. Sadly the key word here is "yet".

Towards the end of the main set, Rodrigo invites one of her "favourite Brits", the 200-million-selling Ed Sheeran, onstage and the two duet sweetly on The A Team, his debut single. Then, casually, and with no malice intended, obviously, she blows that global monster hit out of the water with an emotional, breath-taking run through Deja Vu. Talk about a mic drop moment.

Four killer encores - a wildly received Brutal, a sassy, savagely sarcastic All-American Bitch, the Paramore-adjacent spite-punk of Good 4 U (Gen Z's own You Oughta Know, with the whole park screaming "It's like we never even happened, baby, what the fuck is up with that?") and conflicted summer heartbreak anthem Get Him Back! - bring BST's opening night to a spectacular climax.

"Nights like this that are so special I have to pinch myself," Rodrigo gushes at one point, doubtless speaking for the vast majority of those standing before her. If you're one of those self-satisfied old bores who thinks that music doesn't mean/matter as much to younger generations as it does to you, you're flat-out wrong, and here's the living proof.

A stadium rock masterclass. No shit.

Olivia Rodrigo - Good 4 U @ BST Hyde Park London 27/6 2025 - YouTube

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