Olivia Rodrigo Dazzles At BST Hyde Park With Surprise Ed Sheeran Duet
Pop powerhouse Olivia Rodrigo lit up BST Hyde Park on Friday night with an electrifying 19-song set, delivering a flawless performance to 65,000 fans ahead of her highly anticipated Glastonbury 2025 headline debut.
The 22-year-old chart-topper, currently touring her GUTS World Tour, brought high energy, raw emotion and megawatt stage presence to the Great Oak Stage, proving once again why she's one of the most influential pop stars of her generation.
In a standout moment, Rodrigo welcomed Ed Sheeran to the stage for a surprise duet of his emotional hit The A-Team , prompting a wave of cheers from the packed Hyde Park audience. 'I want to introduce one of my favourite Brits and one of the best songwriters of all time,' Rodrigo said as Sheeran joined her with guitar in hand, the pair sharing a touching performance under the summer night sky.
BST Hyde Park. Olivia Rodrigo and Ed Sheeran @jrcmccord © jrcmccord
From High School Musical to Pop Royalty
Rodrigo's evolution from Disney star to award-winning global artist was on full display. Switching between electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and piano, she performed hit after hit— Brutal, Vampire, Drivers License, Get Him Back, Good 4 U , and more—showcasing both her musicianship and her deeply resonant songwriting. The energy in Hyde Park on a balmy summer evening was electric–the crowd going wild–with thousands of emotional young girl singing every lyric as Rodrigo strode across the stage.
Rocking a glittering silver fringe outfit and no nonsense biker boots, Rodrigo mesmerized the crowd with poetic lyrics about heartbreak, insecurity, and self-discovery. Her vocals soared, her band—featuring powerful performances from the women drummer and guitarists—matched her intensity, and the production included pyro effects and a sky full of streamers.
'I think London is my favourite place right now,' Rodrigo told the audience, who were in the palm of her hand from the beginning of the high- voltage set. 'So many special moments in this park… this is like my dream gig!'
Rodrigo is a heady mix of Girl Power, Emo angst and Rock n'Roll riffs–Alannis Morisette meets the Spice Girls with a hint of 80s Madonna. Rodrigo's poetic lyrics speak of broken hearts and the pressure to live up to beauty standards–sentiments that resonate with her army of girl fans. Underneath the doe-eyed, feline exterior Rodrigo possesses an inner steel and determination that comes across in the way she confidently strides around the stage, rocking the guitar and belting out hit after hit while the adoring crowd remain captivated by her energy, her voice and her sheer star wattage.
BST Hyde Park. Olivia Rodrigo @sophiajcarey @sophiajcarey
Star-Studded Audience & Feminine Rock Energy
The crowd wasn't just packed with fans. Celebrities including Sabrina Carpenter (also performing at BST this year), Luke Newton of Bridgerton , James Corden, and Rodrigo's boyfriend Louis Partridge were all spotted soaking in the show.
Supporting Rodrigo on the main stage were the raw talents of all-female Indie rock band The Last Dinner Party, who opened the evening with a high-octane set. Dressed in pre-Raphaelite-inspired gowns and performing on a stage styled with Roman columns, they delivered fan favourites like Mirror and Nothing Matters . Lead singer Abigail Morris brought confident, theatrical energy, channelling Florence Welch, Stevie Nicks, and Mick Jagger in equal measure. The band paraded along the catwalk into the audience, guitars aloft, in a Bacchanalian procession of musicality and theatricality.
Morris told the crowd: 'It's so lovely to be back here… We got a spot when the Stones were playing. To be back supporting Olivia Rodrigo is so special.'
BST Hyde Park. The Last Dinner Party @sophiajcarey © Sophia J Carey
Celebrating Women in Music
BST Hyde Park's Friday lineup was a celebration of rising female talent. girl in red performed powerful tracks like bad idea ! and I Call You Mine , while floweroflove made a dramatic entrance from a giant stiletto to kick off a standout set. Over on the Rainbow Stage, Caity Baser headlined, with support from Katie Gregson-MacLeod and Ruti, all showcasing the depth of talent among Gen Z artists.
BST Hyde Park. Olivia Rodrigo @ISHASHAHPHOTOGRAPHY @ISHASHAHPHOTOGRAPHY
BST Hyde Park 2025 Continues
BST Hyde Park continues through July with major performances still to come from Noah Kahan, Sabrina Carpenter, Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts, Stevie Wonder, and Jeff Lynne's ELO.
Tickets are available now via bst-hydepark.com
BST Hyde Park. Olivia Rodrigo, Ed Sheeran @sophiajcarey @sophiajcarey
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
44 minutes ago
- New York Post
The depressing thing 1 in 10 people would rather do than have sex — even if it makes them feel terrible
Bedroom boom-boom could be doomed. The fun of a good ol' fashion roll in the hay, apparently, doesn't compare to the euphoria of a scroll on the screen. Dismal new data shows that that an eye-popping one in 10 folks would rather fool around on their phones — than fool around with their partners. Advertisement 4 A shocking 10% of sexaully active sirens say they'd rather scroll on their phone than have sex with their significant others, according to a new poll. Syda Productions – Researchers for global technology manufacturers OnePlus surveyed 2,000 adults in the UK to find that Brits spend a collective 67.4 million hours of 'doom scrolling' — laying in bed and thumbing through social media apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Twitter— on a daily basis. And the nasty new-age habit is likely to trigger a series of damaging side effects, experts warn — including drowsiness, memory loss, decreased information retention and declined mental health. Advertisement The survey revealed that 28% of doom-scrollers are often tired or drained, while 22% feel anxious or overwhelmed. Half of the respondents admitted that bedtime timeline surfing reduces their productivity (46%) and creativity (28%). Overall, they wasted over 1.5 hours (96 minutes) doom scrolling daily — be it while enjoying quality time with loved ones (49%), on the toilet (41%), at a school event (13%), wedding (12%) or a funeral (6%). 4 Doom scrollers confessed to being fixated on their phones in the bathroom, while spending time with family and friends, at weddings, special events and funerals. Egoitz – Advertisement More alarming, the Gen Z demographic, those digital natives aged 18 to 27, said they spent a staggering 2.5 hours (143 minutes) doing the deed — doom scrolling, not sex — each day. The finding backs up other backs up other recent reports revealing that for Zoomers, sex has indeed taken a backseat to the generation's addiction to technology. Instead of getting hot and heavy in-real life, roughly 31% of the WiFi-obsessed whippersnappers say they prefer sexting or having contactless cyber sex via their devices. 4 Previous studies have found that Gen Zers are spending more time on their phones than they are spending sexy time between the sheets. Getty Images/iStockphoto Advertisement 4 For 20-somethings, sexting and cyber sex are becoming preferred pastimes over actual person-to-person intimacy, per reports. Getty Images/iStockphoto Meanwhile, as a doomscrolling antidote, OnePlus has unveiled a new, hopefully healthier distraction — a unique first-person shooter web game that advocates for the anti-scroll movement. Called Brain Rot Blaster, the game features characters inspired by the most common digital demons identified in OnePlus' research. Those evils include negative world news (32%), reality TV and celebrity drama (32%), luxury living (27%), conspiracy theories (26%) and relationship content (24%). It's on-screen merriment that's meant to make players more conscious of their not-so-healthy scrolling habits. No addicts, please, however — the game self-destructs after a single play. Increased awareness of the bad behavior could help rehabilitate the 44% of people who regularly lose track of time when scrolling, or the 22% who have no idea how much they scroll at all, per the data. Advertisement 'It's easy to fall into mindless scrolling — at home, at work, even around loved ones,' Celina Shi, Chief Marketing Officer of OnePlus Europe, said in a statement. 'With this campaign, we're encouraging people to take back control of their screen time and use their phones with more purpose.' 'Why lose hours to the scroll, when you could be creating something that inspires you instead?.'
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
3-Year-OId Wants To Go To Disneyland for Birthday, Parents Did One Better
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A Washington couple found a way to make all their daughter's birthday dreams come true at a fraction of the price. Kim Egan moved from Los Angeles to Gig Harbor with her husband Brian and their two young children two years ago. She took to Reddit to reveal the big surprise they put together for their daughter Millie's third birthday: a homemade mini Disneyland. It was a shrewd choice, given the costs of a trip to see Mickey Mouse and the gang in person and one Egan was happy to share to Reddit under the handle u/DMMeYourCat. An analysis by the money-saving advice website Nerdwallet found that the cost of an average ticket for a family of four going to Disney World stands at $713. The analysis also puts the cheapest-priced ticket for a single day trip to the park at $160 per person. Many would have balked at the idea of building a mini DisneyLand from scratch, but Egan and her husband had form where this was concerned. "We wanted to do something special because last year we made homemade Sesame Street characters," Egan told Newsweek. The family displays the Disneyland of their own that they made. The family displays the Disneyland of their own that they made. Instagram/dotton_creative That experience proved invaluable this time around. "Last year, it was cardboard, this year, it's SP Styrofoam," Egan said. "We learned and adapted." Together, the couple created cardboard cutouts of all the familiar Disney favorites: Mickey, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck and Pluto, as well as characters from movies like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. Those were only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the Egans' creativity, though. Not only did they put together a mini Disney castle for Millie to enjoy, but there was also a Sebastian's Splash Shack and, best of all, a Mickey Mouse-themed cinema projecting classic clips from the movies. "My husband is an animator who specializes in projection-mapping. He made a custom projection show, based on her favorite songs," Egan said. The Disneyland includes its very own cinema. The Disneyland includes its very own cinema. Instagram/dotton_creative Egan said the couple spent two months working away on the project while the hardest part of the whole thing was "keeping it a secret" from their kids. "Millie had no idea what we were doing up until the day that it happened," Egan added. "She was over the moon." While keeping things a secret may not have been easy, Egan said that she and her husband "had a blast making something special for our daughters" and creating memories for themselves. "When the kids would go to sleep, my husband and I would spend hours laughing, talking and painting," Egan said. "It's a wonderful bonding experience for the whole family to enjoy." This isn't the end of the fun either, with Egan and her husband already plotting to put their family's new mini-Disneyland to good use over the festive break. "We are planning to display it for Christmas, so everyone of all ages can enjoy it, too," Egan said. There will also bound to be plans afoot for something even bigger and better for the next birthday in the family.
Buzz Feed
an hour ago
- Buzz Feed
How Ryan Coogler Is Reshaping The Marvel Universe
The latest MCU series is finally out, and Riri Williams is stepping out of her (metal) cage and is doing just fine. Ironheart is the newest addition to the Marvel Universe, and despite fake reviews and unnecessary outrage, fans are celebrating its arrival and what it signals for the franchise's future. I sat down with executive producer Ryan Coogler, series writer Chinaka Hodge, and director Angela Barnes to talk about the power of representation in the MCU, and why Ironheart marks a turning point for comic book storytelling: Ironheart is available to stream now on Disney+
