• Olivia Rodrigo, 23, pushed back against online criticism of her babydoll dress looks in a new interview on The New York Times’ Popcast, calling the reaction “really disturbing” and saying it shows “how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture”
• The backlash began after she wore a pink-and-blue minidress in her “Drop Dead” music video and escalated when she wore a Génération78 babydoll dress at Spotify’s Billions Club Live concert in Barcelona on May 8 — critics described the looks as “infantilizing” and accused her of wearing “sexualized children’s clothing”
• Rodrigo pointed out the double standard directly: “I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage. I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and little shorts… and that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be childlike was inappropriate”
• Per Complex, she connected the criticism to riot grrrl fashion history and broader patterns of how society sexualizes young girls, calling those reactions “freak” reactions
• “Drop Dead” is from her forthcoming third album You Seem Pretty Sad

Olivia Rodrigo has had enough. The “Drivers License” singer spent part of a new New York Times Popcast interview addressing the months-long online debate over her babydoll dresses — and she didn’t hold back.

The controversy started in April when Rodrigo wore a pink-and-blue minidress in the video for “Drop Dead,” a single from her upcoming third album You Seem Pretty Sad. It intensified after she performed at Spotify’s Billions Club Live concert in Barcelona on May 8 in a Génération78 babydoll dress and knee-high black boots — a look that set off a fresh wave of takes, with some describing the outfit as that of a “sexualized child” and others writing things like “A grown woman wearing children’s clothes… she keeps giving me the ick.”

Rodrigo’s response, recorded for an upcoming Popcast episode and previewed widely this week, was pointed. “That’s been making me so upset,” she told Us Magazine. “Not even for me. People can say whatever they want.”

‘Fully Covered Up… Was Inappropriate’

What bothered her, she said, was the logic the critics were applying. “What’s really disturbing is I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage,” Rodrigo continued, per Newsweek. “I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and little shorts, which is my right — that’s fun, I felt cool and comfortable in that. And that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deemed to be childlike was inappropriate.” She said the pattern was “really disturbing” and added: “It really shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”

Per Complex, she tied the reaction to riot grrrl fashion — a deliberately transgressive, anti-sexualization aesthetic with deep roots in ’90s punk and feminist music — and to broader double standards in how young women’s bodies get policed and interpreted regardless of what they actually wear. The framing, she suggested, says more about the critics than it does about the dress.

The post Olivia Rodrigo Fires Back at Babydoll Dress Critics: ‘It Really Shows How We Normalize Pedophilia in Our Culture’ appeared first on Cream.

• Olivia Rodrigo dropped the full tracklist for her third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, on May 26
• The album is split into two sides: “Girl So in Love” (7 tracks) and “You Seem Pretty Sad” (6 tracks)
• Song titles include “Maggots for Brains,” “Purple,” “What’s Wrong With Me,” and “Cigarette”
• Previously released singles “Drop Dead” and “The Cure” appear on the tracklist
• The album arrives June 12 via Geffen Records

Olivia Rodrigo has a song called “Maggots for Brains” on her next album and honestly, after GUTS, nothing should surprise us anymore.

On Tuesday, the 22-year-old posted the full tracklist for You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love to Instagram — all 13 tracks, displayed in pink embroidered lettering against a photo of Rodrigo looking pensive by a park swing at night. Very on-brand.

The album is divided into two sides, like a vinyl LP or cassette: “Girl So in Love” carries seven tracks, and “You Seem Pretty Sad” closes with six. Whether that structural split reflects a mood arc, a narrative, or just a vibe will become clear when the record actually arrives on June 12 via Geffen Records.

The Track List

Beyond the already-released “Drop Dead” and “The Cure,” the album includes titles like “Purple,” “What’s Wrong With Me,” “Cigarette,” and “Maggots for Brains” — which is a sentence that required a moment of pause to type.

“The Cure,” which Rodrigo called her “favourite on the album” and “one of my favourite songs I’ve ever made,” came out recently alongside a music video set in a cardboard hospital where she hunts for the antidote to heartbreak. Co-written with longtime collaborator Dan Nigro, it’s driven by acoustic guitar and digs into self-doubt and misplaced trust. “Drop Dead” was the lead single.

The Third Chapter

Sour made her a star. GUTS proved it wasn’t a fluke. Now, with a title as disarmingly contradictory as You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, Rodrigo appears to be leaning even further into the duality she’s always written best: the happiness that comes with a catch, the heartbreak with a wink.

Thirteen tracks. June 12. And at least one song whose name no one saw coming.

The post Olivia Rodrigo Drops Album Tracklist — and ‘Maggots for Brains’ Is a Real Song Name appeared first on Cream.

• Olivia Rodrigo’s babydoll dress at Spotify’s Billions Club show in Barcelona ignited a wave of online criticism
• Critics claimed the look “infantilizes” the 23-year-old, while fans pushed back hard with historical context
• The silhouette has deep roots in riot grrrl fashion — think Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland in the ’90s
• Rodrigo has been pairing feminine dresses with combat boots since her 2021 debut, making this a signature look
• Researchers have previously flagged bot-driven smear campaigns targeting pop stars like Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan

Olivia Rodrigo wore a floral dress and the internet apparently couldn’t handle it.

The Grammy-winning singer performed at Spotify’s Billions Club Live in Barcelona on May 8 — a concert series celebrating artists whose songs have crossed one billion streams on the platform. Rodrigo had nine songs to celebrate, including “Driver’s License,” “Deja Vu,” “Good 4 U,” and “Vampire.” She took the stage at the Teatro Greco in a white Génération78 babydoll dress — short-sleeved, floral-patterned, skirt hitting well above the thigh — paired with knee-high black leather Dr. Martens boots and barely visible lace bloomers underneath. She rocked out. She crawled around. She performed nine billion-stream songs.

And then the discourse started.

Posts on X and Instagram piled up, with users insisting the look was inappropriate — simultaneously infantilizing and sexualizing the 23-year-old. “She is wearing pink dresses that are similar to what toddlers wear with frilly underwear beneath it,” one X user wrote. “Can Olivia Rodrigo dress like a normal pop star and stop trying to dress up like a toddler?” wrote another. “A grown woman wearing children’s clothes … she keeps giving me the ick,” a third chimed in. One post referencing the Barcelona outfit racked up 21 million views and simply read, “Maybe I’m too woke.”

One particularly viral take grouped Rodrigo alongside Sabrina Carpenter in a side-by-side photo with the caption: “We have to talk about the weird trend of heavily sexualized pop stars dressing themselves as little girls.”

Except — this is not a new look for Rodrigo. Not even close.

The Look Has a History (and It’s a Good One)

The babydoll dress itself has a history that has nothing to do with children’s clothing. The silhouette was developed by lingerie designer Sylvia Pedlar in 1942 as a response to wartime fabric shortages, popularized in the late ’50s by the Carroll Baker film Baby Doll and Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, and then reclaimed in the ’90s by the grunge and alternative rock world. Courtney Love wore it. Kat Bjelland wore it. It became a defining aesthetic of the riot grrrl movement — hyper-feminine dresses worn in deliberate, provocative contrast to the rage and punk energy these women brought to their music. The whole point was subversion.

Rodrigo has been transparent about these influences. In 2023, she told Rolling Stone that her mom used to wake her up by putting on Babes in Toyland’s Fontanelle — Bjelland’s band. “Rock in that feminine way, that’s just the coolest thing in the world to me,” she said. She’s been pairing feminine dresses with combat boots since she kicked off her career in 2021, and the aesthetic has always been referential — it’s part of what makes her connect across generations of fans.

As she gears up to release her third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love, the babydoll has become even more central to her visual identity. She wore a bubblegum-pink floral collared version for the album artwork. She wore a blue, ruffled one for the “Drop Dead” music video. The Barcelona outfit was a continuation of a fully intentional aesthetic — not a wardrobe malfunction, not a lapse in judgment.

Fans who actually know their fashion history said as much. “Olivia Rodrigo has been making a lot of references to the past during this era, and the babydoll is one of them,” one supporter wrote on X. “Although its name may cause confusion, its history, design and purpose are clearly linked to women’s lingerie and have nothing to do with children’s clothing.” Another put it more bluntly: “It’s literally just a babydoll dress, and they conveniently cut off the photo to not show Olivia Rodrigo is wearing knee-high LEATHER boots. Courtney Love was wearing similar [clothes] a decade ago. Predators are the problem, not pop stars.”

Could This Be More Than Just Misogyny?

The anger has a familiar smell to it. Over the past year, GUDEA — a behavioral intelligence startup that tracks viral, reputation-harming claims online — flagged two separate bot-driven smear campaigns targeting Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan. The playbook: fake profiles flood platforms with incendiary posts, creating the illusion of widespread outrage where none organically existed. No confirmed bot campaign has been identified in Rodrigo’s case — but the pattern of the criticism, its intensity, and the sheer weirdness of the takes have people raising an eyebrow.

Or it could simply be what it’s always been. “Putting out music in the age of social media can be really daunting,” Rodrigo told Alanis Morissette in a 2021 Rolling Stone Musicians on Musicians conversation. “I think people hold young women to an incredibly unrealistic standard.”

She said that five years ago. Apparently it still applies.

The post Olivia Rodrigo’s Babydoll Dress Drama, Explained appeared first on Cream.

• Trans pop singer Eli started a mock “beef” with Taylor Swift on TikTok while promoting her album Stage Girl, joking that Swift “will never be trans.”
• When Swifties flooded her DMs with insults, Eli escalated — calling out Swift over Olivia Rodrigo’s publishing credits on “Deja Vu.”
• Eli published an open letter asking Swift to use her influence to fight exploitative royalty structures across the music industry.
• Swift has not responded; she’s currently in Europe watching Sadie Sink on the West End and attending a wedding in Greece.
• Eli has 263K Instagram followers — but her letter is making a lot of noise well beyond that audience.

It started as a bit. It became something else entirely.

Trans pop singer Eli — full name Eli Miller — has spent the last several days in an increasingly intense back-and-forth with Taylor Swift’s fanbase, and what began as a cheeky TikTok promo stunt has since turned into a genuine conversation about artists’ rights, publishing credits, and whether the most powerful woman in music has a responsibility to use that power for the greater good.

Here’s how we got here.

The TikTok That Started It All

Back in October, Eli was in full album-promo mode ahead of her debut record Stage Girl. Like every artist trying to break through right now, she was living on TikTok — and she leaned into it with a concept that was equal parts self-aware and chaotic: unnecessary beef season.

In one video, she looked directly into the camera and declared, “Taylor Swift, you will never be trans,” before launching into her track “Girl of Your Dreams.” She also told Zara Larsson to produce their collab already and informed Sabrina Carpenter that she, in fact, is trans. It was absurdist, funny, and very much the kind of content that gets a rising artist some attention without burning any real bridges.

@journalofadoll

@Zara Larsson send me files now or good luck sleeping without ur black out curtains 🌅 #popmusic #eli #originalmusic #singersongwriter #livemusic

♬ girl of ur dreams by eli – Eli

That first wave passed without incident. No one responded. The video went a little viral. Life went on.

When the Swifties Showed Up

Then, last week, Eli posted a new TikTok — herself at a photo shoot, decked out in a kitschy showgirl costume with a plastic karaoke mic — and repeated the line. This time, it landed differently. The clip found its way to Swifties, and they were not amused.

The video has since been deleted, but the response it triggered was very much still online. Eli took to her Instagram Stories and didn’t hold back.

“Swifties are so similar to maga,” she wrote on one slide. On the next: “They are mad at me rn because Taylor Swift will never be a trans woman.” She said she had “100+ swifties” flooding her DMs, “calling me fat and a man because I said she will never be trans.”

And then she pivoted.

“I am not afraid of the predatory establishment upheld by that calculated fame fucking billionaire,” Eli wrote. “Give Olivia Rodrigo her publishing back and then we’ll talk!!”

Where Olivia Rodrigo Comes In

If you need a refresher: when Rodrigo released “Deja Vu” off her debut album Sour, fans quickly clocked similarities to Swift’s “Cruel Summer.” Rodrigo acknowledged being inspired by the song, and Swift — along with collaborators Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent — was eventually added as a songwriter on the track, entitling them to royalties from one of the biggest pop songs of that year.

Rodrigo has been careful about how she discusses it publicly. When promoting her second album Guts, she told The Guardian, “I was so green as to how the music industry worked, the litigious side … I feel like now I know so much more about the industry and I just feel … better equipped in that regard.” She’s also visibly distanced herself from Swift in the years since.

Eli’s read on the situation — and she makes clear it’s her read — is that Swift wielded her power unfairly against a younger, less established artist. “How are you gonna be the face of ‘the great american songwriter’ and completely betray the art of songwriting by unjustly & selfishly using ur power and dominance to steal the rights and royalties of a young up and coming songwriter,” she wrote in her longest Story slide, “because she shouted 4 doubles of a gang vocal in an incredible distinct and singular pop song that is far from [derivative] and DOES NOT EMULATE OR BELONG TO YOU AT ALL.”

It’s worth flagging what Eli herself doesn’t address: no one involved — not Rodrigo, not Swift, not their respective teams — has ever publicly stated that it was Swift who demanded the credit. The specifics of how that publishing decision was made have never been confirmed on the record.

Eli kept going. “How are you gonna degrade the integrity of songwriting and turn your back on a young up and coming woman in the industry because you are greedy and mentally crystallized at 12 years old on that tennessee radio show where they told you ‘you’ll never be good enough,'” she continued, before telling Swifties that all Swift does is “steal your money and buy more houses.”

Then, almost as a footnote: “folklore + evermore is an amazing album.”

The Open Letter

After her Stories blew up as a talking point, Eli took things to her main grid — posting a formal open letter on both Instagram and X.

The tone shifted considerably. Gone was the righteous fury. In its place: a genuine, earnest plea.

“I humbly plead for you to use your power and influence for good,” Eli wrote, asking Swift to encourage her “powerful counterparts and contemporaries” to sit down with the heads of major labels and streaming services to “begin the process of restructuring the exploitative royalty splits that keep us dormant in the industry, from $.003 payout to $0.3 payout” — and to push for fairer record label and publishing deals across the board.

She acknowledged that none of this is Swift’s personal obligation. But, she argued, “the corporation that is ‘Taylor Swift’ holds an extraordinary and INCOMPARABLE cultural and economic power” — and that kind of power “could and should be used to abolish these abusive systemic structures.”

She closed by offering to send Swift a Zoom link. She signed off as “the girl who said you will never be trans (however, always open to the contrary).”

The letter also noted that Eli believes if Swift takes action, it “will only further cement your positive reputation in this world and uphold your legacy of ‘great American songwriter.'” High stakes flattery, but flattery nonetheless — from a singer with 263K Instagram followers addressing one of the most famous people on the planet.

The Irony Here Is Real

Here’s the thing: artists’ rights aren’t some foreign concept to Taylor Swift. They’re practically her brand. The entire re-recording project — reclaiming her masters one album at a time — exists because she was burned by a bad deal early in her career. She’s publicly pushed for better streaming rates for artists. And just recently, a clause in her Universal Music Group contract means other artists will see a payday when UMG sells its Spotify stock.

Eli and Swift, in other words, want some of the same things. The messenger and the message just got tangled up in “you will never be trans” on the way there.

As for Swift herself — she hasn’t responded, and based on her current schedule, she’s been a little busy. She was recently spotted attending Travis Kelce’s teammate George Karlaftis’s wedding in Greece and catching Sadie Sink on the West End. A representative for Swift had not commented at the time of publication.

The Zoom link is still open, though.

The post Singer Eli’s Taylor Swift Feud, Explained appeared first on Cream.

• Olivia Rodrigo performed at Spotify’s exclusive Billions Club Live show in Barcelona on May 8
• She wore a hand-embellished Génération78 babydoll dress with chunky knee-high Dr. Martens platform boots
• Some fans criticized the look as “infantilizing” — others pointed to its clear riot-grrrl roots
• Rodrigo was honored with nine plaques for songs that have each hit a billion streams on Spotify
• She also performed her new single “drop dead,” ahead of her upcoming album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love

Olivia Rodrigo flew to Barcelona last week with nine billion-stream plaques to her name and a babydoll dress that apparently broke the internet. The 23-year-old headlined Spotify’s exclusive Billions Club Live show on May 8 at the city’s iconic Teatre Grec — a special concert tied to the platform’s partnership with FC Barcelona ahead of El Clásico weekend — and walked away with plaques honoring every song of hers that’s crossed the billion-stream mark, including “Driver’s License,” “Deja Vu,” “Good 4 U,” and “Vampire.”

For the performance, she leaned hard into the girly-punk aesthetic that’s been defining her new era. Her stylists Chloe and Chenelle Delgadillo pulled a hand-embellished puff-sleeve top from Génération78 — from the label’s “Crush Loves Drama” collection, which feels almost too on-brand — worn as a minidress, complete with puff sleeves, lacy trim, crystal appliqués, and grosgrain ribbon. She paired it with barely visible lace bloomers and black chunky knee-high platform boots from Dr. Martens. The contrast was very much the point.

Rodrigo played the biggest hits from SOUR and GUTS, and also debuted “drop dead” — the lead single from her forthcoming third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love — for the intimate crowd. When she wasn’t onstage, she was spotted soaking up the full El Clásico experience, stopping by both FC Barcelona and FC Barcelona Femení with her own custom kit.

Spotify marked the occasion on Instagram with a caption that read: “@oliviarodrigo and her plaques go really nice together. Billions Club Live in Barcelona.”

The Outfit That Got Everyone Talking

Not everyone was focused on the milestone. Some commenters zeroed in on the dress itself, with one user writing: “A grown woman wearing children’s clothes … she keeps giving me the ick.” The word “infantilizing” came up more than once.

But here’s the thing — anyone familiar with riot-grrrl history saw something very different. The babydoll dress, the frills, the boots: it’s a look with deep roots in the feminist punk movement of the early ’90s. Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland were doing exactly this — deliberately reclaiming the aesthetics of girlhood as a form of subversion — decades before Olivia Rodrigo was born. The kinderwhore aesthetic wasn’t about looking childlike. It was about weaponizing it.

This isn’t the first time Rodrigo has drawn from that well. She’s openly cited those influences, and her whole visual identity — the smudged eyeliner, the vintage slips, the Docs — reads as a direct line to that tradition. The Barcelona look wasn’t an accident. It was a choice, and a pretty coherent one at that.

The criticism also isn’t new. Young women in pop have been told to dress their age in one direction or another for as long as pop has existed. The conversation tends to say more about the people having it than the person being discussed.

Meanwhile, the real news might be this: Rodrigo’s Unraveled Tour is completely sold out — including the 25 additional dates added to meet demand. At a moment when artists from Meghan Trainor to Post Malone have been canceling or cutting tours short, that’s not a small thing. Nine billion-stream songs, a sold-out world tour, and a new album on the way — the dress is the least interesting part of the story.

The post Olivia Rodrigo’s Babydoll Dress Is Dividing Fans appeared first on Cream.