Olivia Rodrigo sings 'Strong Enough' for Sheryl Crow at BMI honour
Olivia Rodrigo sang “Strong Enough” to honour Sheryl Crow at a dinner in Nashville where Crow collected the 2026 BMI Troubadour Award.
The performance, reported by Rolling Stone, placed Rodrigo at the centre of an evening built entirely around Crow’s songbook. BMI, the United States royalties body that collects payments for songwriters when their songs are played on radio, in venues or on streaming services, presents the Troubadour Award each September in Nashville. John Fogerty, the Creedence Clearwater Revival writer and solo artist, was the recipient in the year before Crow.
Rodrigo was one of six guest singers who each took a different Crow song. Jason Isbell opened that sequence with “Run, Baby, Run,” the brisk guitar track from Crow’s early run of singles. Melissa Etheridge followed with “If It Makes You Happy,” one of Crow’s best-known choruses. Eric Church then performed “Leaving Las Vegas,” the wry, story-led song that helped introduce Crow as a solo writer-artist.
The second half of the tribute moved through other corners of the catalogue. Lauren Daigle sang “Every Day Is a Winding Road,” with its loose, rolling rhythm. Chris Stapleton performed “I Shall Believe,” the quieter closing ballad from Crow’s debut album. Together, the choices spanned pop-rock, country, soul and gospel, and traced a writing career that has moved steadily between those sounds.
The Nashville dinner continued a musical exchange between Rodrigo and Crow that has played out in public over three years. Rodrigo appeared alongside Crow at Crow’s 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, where generations of writers and performers share the stage for one night. She then invited Crow on stage at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville during her Guts world tour to sing “If It Makes You Happy” as a duet, as documented by Billboard. Crow later praised the younger singer in an interview, calling Rodrigo “the real deal,” as reported by Billboard.
Crow also has new music on the way. Her album “Pick You Up” is set for release on 9 October.
What makes this stand out is the directness of the handover. A younger pop songwriter first learned the older songbook on stage in front of thousands of people, then sang it back to its writer in a smaller room full of fellow songwriters. For fans, this means two ways back into the music: Crow’s original recordings, and Rodrigo’s live readings of them, verse for verse.
