Olivia Rodrigo surprised fans with a performance during an open mic night in New York City on Sunday night.
The Vampire hitmaker took to the stage at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg, New York, delighting attendees at the long-running weekly event.
Olivia treated the crowd to a stripped-back rendition of Drop Dead, the lead single from her upcoming third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. She released the track earlier this month, and most recently performed it live during Addison Rae’s Coachella set.
The venue has hosted its Sunday open mic for more than 20 years and has previously welcomed artists including Vampire Weekend, Sufjan Stevens, Norah Jones and Joanna Newsom.
Several clips from the event have since been shared online, including one posted by Brooklyn-based artist Industry Monk, who captioned the video, “Me, unaware I was opening for Olivia Rodrigo.”
In a new interview with Audacy Check In, Olivia revealed that her forthcoming album was largely inspired by her first “big girl relationship” and explores themes including jealousy and longing.
“I think the challenge for me was to write songs about romantic love positively,” she shared. “I think when I set out to write this album, I was really in love – sort of my first ‘big girl’ relationship – (and) writing a song about happiness is a lot harder than writing a song about heartbreak.”
The Good 4 U singer continued, “It was sort of challenging myself to make a love song and also talk about some of the more negative feelings that go along with being in romantic relationships, like longing and yearning and jealousy and missing your partner when they’re away.”
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with British Vogue, Olivia revealed that the record consists of “sad love songs” and was heavily inspired by the time she spent in London.
You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love is scheduled for release on 12 June.
