Olivia Rodrigo experienced a “pinch me” moment when she visited the White House.
The 19-year-old singer met US President Joe Biden at the White House in 2021, when she encouraged young Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and Olivia now looks back on the experience with a sense of pride.
The chart-topping star – who released her debut album, SOUR’, in May 2021 – said: “One of the craziest moments in my life was getting to go to the White House and meet President Joe Biden and support vaccination in America.
“The whole time I was in the White House having this incredible experience, I was just thinking about how I got to do it because I wrote a bunch of songs in my bedroom. That was just a real ‘pinch me’ moment.”
Olivia is currently preparing to head out on tour, almost a year after she released her first album.
And the teenage star is now looking forward to performing in front of her fans.
She told Billboard: “A really beautiful thing about songwriting is watching songs that are so personal to you go out into the world and kind of take on another life. So performing the songs now is even more special than it was when I was writing them in my bedroom, because they now have so many other people’s stories intertwined within them, too.
“I’m really excited to experience that firsthand on tour.”
Meanwhile, Olivia previously urged her fans to get their COVID-19 vaccine.
The ‘good 4 u’ hitmaker also praised the efforts of President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, his chief medical adviser.
She said in the White House press briefing room: “I’m in awe of the work President Biden and Dr. Fauci have done and was happy to help lend my support to this important initiative.
“It’s important to have conversations with friends and family members encouraging all communities to get vaccinated, and actually get to a vaccination site, which you can do more easily than ever before, given how many sites we have and how easy it is to find them at vaccines.gov.”