Olivia Rodrigo Brought the Glitz in a Low-Cut Silver Column Dress at the 2023 MTV VMAs

Hot off the release of her critically-acclaimed second album Guts, Olivia Rodrigo continued her big month with an appearance at tonight’s MTV VMAs in Newark, New Jersey. Rodrigo leaned into her starlet status, wearing a low-cut silver column dress. Her hair was styled down and straight with a center part.

The music video for Rodrigo’s first Guts single “Vampire” nabbed her several MTV VMA nominations: Video of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Song, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing. The singer will be performing at the ceremony, too.

Rodrigo spoke to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 about Guts last week. When asked about its overall message, she admitted, “I feel like when you’re making the album, you can’t really see the forest through the trees a little bit about what’s about or what you’re trying to get across. Sometimes you just wake up and go into the studio and see what comes out of you. In hindsight, I think that a lot of this album is about the confusion that comes with becoming a young adult and figuring out your place in this world and figuring out who you want to be and who you want to hang out with and all of that stuff. I think that that’s probably an experience that everyone has had in their life before, is just that rising from that disillusionment.”

She also discussed how she improved her songwriting since her debut album Sour. “I think that, in general, making this album has given me a lot of confidence as a songwriter,” Rodrigo said. “I think writing the first album, it just felt so spontaneous. I was 17 years old learning how to write songs for the first time and just pouring my heart out. I had so much to say. I think this time I was in a different place, and I was having a lot of pressure and a lot of expectations placed on me, and I think I really had to try to block out the noise and just focus on the craft of songwriting. I wasn’t going through my first 17-year-old heartbreak, and I think that it forced me to be maybe a little bit more creative in the way that I write.”

Senior News and Strategy Editor

Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.