Lia's Night Out with Olivia Rodrigo!

After Olivia Rodrigo released her first album, Sour, last Spring, Lia quickly fell in love with her after being introduced to her songs by Alyssa, Lia's good friend.  I found this to be most appropriate since Lia and Alyssa grew up loving to play American Girl Dolls together and Oliva played the American Girl of the Year 2015, Grace Thomas, in the movie made by AGD.  So, Olivia had already been a part of our family for several years.  With the exception of her having a bit of a potty mouth, I loved watching these two girls enjoy her songs and was amazed at how this young, 18-year old girl become an overnight sensation.  In less than a year, she went from releasing her first album as a teenager to winning three Grammys last Sunday.  Her first year in the music industry has really been quite remarkable. 

With all of that said, I promised Lia that I would take her to see Olivia in concert if she ever came to Seattle.  In addition, I talked to Alyssa's mom, Sheri, and asked her if she and her daughter would want to join Lia and me to go to Olivia's concert if she ever came to town.  Within a matter of months, her first tour was announced and Seattle was the second city on the list!  

Keeping it a secret, Alyssa's mom bought four tickets for us the minute the presale began which was a lucky thing as her tickets sold out before the regular sale even started.  I paid Sheri for the tickets and managed to keep it a secret for 2.5 months until I gifted Lia these tickets for her 14th birthday.  Needless to say, Lia was so excited! To keep a long story short, several unpredictable things happened during the few weeks leading up to the concert that  ended up with another girl from church buying Sheri's ticket and Alyssa's dad offering to take my place and buy my ticket the day before the concert.  As crazy as it was to not be going to this concert with Lia, I was very grateful that Alyssa's dad stepped in to take the girls on this nine hour adventure.  He picked them up at 2:30 yesterday afternoon to drive them into Seattle in order for them to get in line hours in advance to try to get decent seats for this general admission venue as none of the tickets available for purchase were for assigned seats.  After waiting in line for 3.5 hours, the doors opened and the four of them were able to snag four seats in the small section of the theater with stadium seating.  They then waiting almost two more hours before Olivia came out on stage and performed for a short 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Since she has only released one albums, she only had 11 songs of her own to sing, plus two cover songs.  The three girls had the time of their lives listening to this favorite pop star of theirs and thoroughly enjoyed spending this evening together.  And as much as I hated to miss out on this event, I was so grateful to climb into bed at 9:30 and barely woke up for one minute to say 'hello' to Lia when she got home at almost 11:30 that night!

The "Sour" tour sign that hung from the WaMu Theater.

Alyssa showing off her "Sour" themed nails that she painted in honor of the concert.

Alyssa, Emerald, and Lia with the WaMu Theater in the background.

The girls waiting in line with hundreds of other fans.

They made it!  The girls posing inside the theater before the concert began.