Olivia Rodrigo had to get into character to find the right words and musical nuance for her song on the forthcoming soundtrack to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Rodrigo, 20, walked the red carpet at the premiere of the hotly anticipated prequel, held at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on Monday, and she spoke with ET’s Ash Crossan about getting the chance to contribute to the film’s musical backdrop.
“It’s such an honor,” shared Rodrigo, who penned the brooding and powerful tune “Can’t Catch Me Now” for the film. “I’m such a huge fan of The Hunger Games, and such a huge fan of The Hunger Games soundtracks, and so when they asked me to do this, I was so excited and so nervous.”
Rodrigo explained that penning the track proved to be a bit more difficult for Rodrigo than writing songs for her own albums, because she needed to approach it from an entirely different perspective than she was used to.
“It was a really fun challenge for me as a songwriter, because lots of my songs are kind of about my personal life,” she shared. “[They are] very diaristic and confessional.”
“So it was a wonderful experience to try to write something from the character of Lucy Gray,” added Rodrigo, referring to the film’s main heroine, played by Rachel Zegler. “[She] is a character that I feel very connected to.”
“So yeah, it was a really fun experience,” she added with a smile.
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As she prepares for the release of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Rodrigo is also gearing up for the launch of her forthcoming world tour, in support of her sophomore album, Guts.
“We’re working on it as we speak!” Rodrigo teased. “I don’t want to say too much, but I’m very excited.:
The songstress explained, “I feel like I wrote this album, Guts, with a tour in mind. Lots of the songs, I kind of wrote them picturing me playing them in these bigger performance places. So it’s gonna be really fun.”
Rodrigo’s Guts world tour kicks off in February 2024.
Meanwhile, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes hits theaters Nov. 17.
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