Happy Monday for Spotify

Some of Olivia Rodrigo‘s most dedicated fans got a big surprise on Thursday night: Olivia stopped by to see them at a special first-look event at the new GUTS Gallery pop-up store in New York City.

Starting September 8, the SPOTIFY x AMERICAN EXPRESS PRESENT: GUTS Gallery Pop-Up Experience will run all weekend long at 25-27 Little West 12th Street in New York. On Thursday night, Olivia’s top listeners on Spotify were treated to a Q&A from the singer, who spoke about making the new album.

“It took a lot of really, really bad songs to get to the ones I liked,” Olivia told fans. “It was a little bit daunting to try to write an album after such unexpected success with SOUR. There were definitely some days where I was like, ‘This is so stressful and I don’t know if I can do this,’ but I had a lot of awesome people around me.”

The hardest song to write, she said, was “teenage dream,” which she created “during a time where I was … wondering if I could come out with a sophomore record that was any good.”

Overall, Olivia said, GUTS is about “just me grappling with mistakes I’ve made in my life or things that I wish I didn’t do and things that I thought were really embarrassing in hindsight. But growing from things like that is the only way you’re gonna figure out who you are in this world.”

The GUTS Gallery is open until 6 p.m. ET September 8 and from 12 to 7 p.m. ET September 9 and 10. It features t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, hats, tote bags and more.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.