Olivia Rodrigo nearly did not make it to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury last year. Before one of the biggest sets of her career, she was in a bathroom, barely holding it together.
According to Billboard, Rodrigo described the moment in a BBC interview promoting her upcoming third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, due out June 12. She called it a full-on anxiety attack.
"I remember having a near anxiety attack in the bathroom, like, 'How am I going to do this? I don't know if I'm ready,'" she said.
Whatever fear gripped her backstage did not follow her out. The second she stepped on stage, something shifted.
"But something overcame me the second I stepped on stage and started singing," Rodrigo said. "I felt totally calm and so in my element. I'm not very spiritual or religious, but it's moments like that where I feel music is just so magical that you just can't really describe it."
The 2025 Glastonbury set marked Rodrigo's first appearance on the Pyramid Stage. She had played the festival before, debuting in 2022 on the Other Stage, but headlining the main stage was a different level entirely. The set included two Cure classics, "Friday I'm in Love" and "Just Like Heaven," performed with Cure singer Robert Smith, whom she has called a rock idol.
Rodrigo said she poured an unusual amount of preparation into the performance. "I have such a reverence for the festival and the incredible heritage and artists that have played on that stage, so I put so much love and care into that set and spent so much time thinking about it," she said. The weekend ended up being, in her words, "probably the best weekend" of her life. "The fact that it translated it was totally a dream come true," she added.
Smith is not just a collaborator from the stage. He appears on the new album as well. The record includes a duet with him called "What's Wrong With Me," which Rodrigo described as the first feature she has ever included on an album. Earlier this week, she sent a handwritten fan letter to subscribers of her email list, describing how she debuted the unreleased track at Primavera Sound in Barcelona.
"I've been insanely excited to tell you guys about this song & it's been so hard to keep it a secret!" she wrote. "It's the first feature I've ever done on an album and I actually cannot believe I got to do it with Robert Smith!"
You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love arrives Friday, June 12.
