The crossover I never thought I needed.
During her sold-out show at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, pop star Olivia Rodrigo performed crowd-favorite hits such as “drivers license,” “vampire,” “traitor” and her smash hit, “good 4 u.” Everything seemed like a standard affair for the 3x Grammy Award-winner. That was until she brought out none other than Tyler Childers (yep, you read that right, the Tyler Childers) for a surprise appearance.
The pair performed Childers‘ 3x platinum hit, “All Your’n” from his 2019 album, Country Squire, and it honestly is pretty incredible. I’ve personally never been the biggest fan of Rodrigo’s work over the years, but this performance might prompt me to give her albums another listen or two.
This comes as quite a surprising pairing given that Rodrigo has never ventured into country music and has only hinted at being inspired to write songs by Taylor Swift’s early work in the genre. She did, however, also give props to Kacey Musgraves in an Apple Music 1 interview with Zane Lowe, noting that Musgraves is one of her favorite songwriters because she likes “artists who were really songwriters first.”
Nevertheless, it’s amazing to see one of the biggest pop stars bring out one of independent country’s biggest and brightest stars. While I don’t think this signals a venture into country music from Rodrigo in the same vein as Post Malone, who really knows what’s in store given the sheer amount of artists trying to make their way into the genre.
Watch here: