Olivia Rodrigo has the cure for fans who just can’t get enough of the superstar singer-songwriter.
Fresh off her inaugural Daisy Chains Fields Music Festival, the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles welcomed Rodrigo on Tuesday, Sept. 1, for an intimate evening featuring an acoustic performance and Q&A moderated by filmmaker, author and journalist Cameron Crowe.
The evening served as a preview for The Cure Unraveled, a new two-part exhibit exploring the making of Rodrigo’s “The Cure” music video through original sets, artwork, behind-the-scenes photography, and interactive experiences.
“What an honor it is to be here and have an exhibit at the Grammy Museum,” Rodrigo told the crowd. “I was talking to my mom earlier, and she said, ‘You used to love the Grammy Museum so much when you were 13/14, and we used to go all the time, and it used to inspire you so much.’ If 13/14-year-old Olivia knew she had her own exhibit at the Grammy Museum, she’d be pretty stoked.”
The programming, on view through Feb. 22, 2027, with an expanded experience featuring never-before-seen props arriving in early fall, centers on Rodrigo’s “The Cure” from her most recent album, “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.”
The video, directed by Cat Solen and Jaime Gerin, with production design by Liam Moore, follows Rodrigo as she explores the complexities of love and, in the process, finds herself unraveling, a major theme of the album.
“The concept of ‘The Cure’ was a feeling that I had been trying to articulate for a really long time, but I didn’t really know how,” Rodrigo told Crowe. “And that’s kind of the beautiful thing about songwriting, is it really just informs you how you feel. I feel like I don’t actually know how I feel about something until I’ve written a song about it, and so it definitely helps me be clear with my emotions.”
Moore brought Rodrigo’s emotional odyssey to life by crafting a handmade hospital where nearly every surface and object is made of cardboard with hand-painted details, creating a surreal world that mirrors her emotional journey.
“We worked really hard on that video,” Rodrigo said. “We were really excited about having everything be really tactile and practical. Everything that you’ll see in the exhibit is handmade. It’s made by artists. They put in hundreds, maybe even like a thousand hours of work into it.”
The music video props featuring miniatures, animatronic heart puppets and stop-motion animation are now part of the exhibit, where fans can see the impressive intricacies firsthand.
“This exhibit is ‘The Cure’ music video brought back to life in the museum’s gallery,” said Director of Exhibits & Curator Kelsey Goelz. “These are the actual sets and props, and if you take a close look, everything is hand-painted and made of cardboard. We set everything up so everybody can take pictures in front of them and immerse themselves in the video set.”
Before walking into the space, fans can pose for a photo with the cardboard cut-out of the X-ray across from the deteriorating doorways featured in the video. Once inside, a mannequin wearing Rodrigo’s retro nurse costume with unraveling yarn spins on a turntable for a 360-degree view.
Nearby, an animatronic heart on an operating tray lets guests bring it to life with a push of a button and beats eerily like a real one. The operating room, where most of the video takes place, is also on full display, along with a miniature version of it that is crushed at the end of the song.
“It’s so cool to see how the artists brought every little detail from tiny to big to life,” Goelz said.
Other intricately designed cardboard props in the exhibit include a microphone stand, acoustic guitar, and an amp that look very real at first glance but aren’t operational. At the end of the room, fans can see the hand-drawn storyboards by Jerin, who co-directed the video and original drawings by Solen.
There are also behind-the-scenes photos from the music video, and displays featuring the hand-drawn font by Jes Sheldon, one of Rodrigo’s graphic designers. Golez said Sheldon taught herself needlepoint to create the visual identity of the new album.
“It’s so fun to think about how just crafting on your own time can turn into something so beautiful that so many people now hold in their hands when they purchase this album,” Golez said.
Following the Q&A with Crowe, Rodrigo ended the night by performing an acoustic set backed by two women musicians that featured five songs including “Drop Dead,” “Stupid Song,” “Maggots for Brains,” “Less,” and “The Cure,” which she described as one of her favorite songs she’s ever made.
“It feels so me, and I think it’s a thesis statement of ‘you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,’” Rodrdirgo said. “It’s basically about this realization that I had that none of these external factors will fix problems that you have within, as cheesy as that sounds. You think that being in a perfect relationship or getting a new job or falling in love for the first time, it’ll suddenly make you feel better about yourself, and the song is about the pretty solemn realization that that is not true. And in fact, sometimes I think falling in love can actually make these issues in yourself even clearer to you, which is a really kind of curious, interesting part about falling in love.”
Tickets for the Grammy Museum are $22.50 for adults, $18 for seniors and military, $15 for students and free for children 17 and under at grammymuseum.org.