Olivia Rodrigo Discovered Gracie Abrams’ Music at 14 or 15 and It Changed How She Thought About Writing Songs

Olivia Rodrigo: I remember being so inspired by you, especially watching you play piano or play guitar in your room and write all these beautiful songs. It made me realize I don’t need to go into a studio or do all this crazy stuff. I can just be in my room and write about my life. Your music has always been so inspiring, truly.

Gracie Abrams: Well, that’s how I feel about yours. This record is no exception. I listened to it and I was like, I gotta go right now, I’m so inspired. Getting somebody else to pick up a guitar or express themselves is the coolest thing you can do as an artist. That’s always the goalpost for me.

Olivia Rodrigo has never been quiet about where she comes from. Before Sour, before the arena tours, she was a teenager on Instagram, and one of the accounts she kept returning to belonged to Gracie Abrams.

Abrams, born in 1999, is a few years older than Rodrigo, born in 2003. The videos that stuck with a 14 or 15 year old Olivia were the simple ones: Gracie in her bedroom with a piano or a guitar, writing songs about her own life. That was the thing that clicked. She didn’t need a studio or a machine behind her. She could just sit in her room and write what was true.

The two are close friends now, and Abrams has opened for Rodrigo on tour, so the admiration runs both ways in real life, not just on a screen.

This exchange came from a Spotify Countdown To interview in July 2026, recorded to promote Abrams’ new album. When Olivia told her how much those early videos meant, Gracie handed the compliment right back, saying Olivia’s new record made her want to run and start writing immediately.

Years earlier, those same bedroom videos are what first got Olivia to pick up a guitar. By Gracie’s own account, that’s the only thing she’s ever really been after.

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