Olivia Rodrigo is a cultural force. It was evident on her first of two sold-out nights in South Philly.

No need to give Olivia Rodrigo her flowers just yet: she has more than enough of her own.

On Saturday, the pop star brought her “The Unraveled Tour” to South Philly for the first of two sold out shows at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, where she performed on a horseshoe shaped stage laid out with thousands of pink, purple, and white (fake) flowers.

The show mirrors Rodrigo’s third and best album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So Much In Love. The two-hour evening loosely followed a love that blooms in spring and withers in winter — before the seasonal cycle renews, with hope springing eternal and confetti falling from the sky.

Before the 24-song show began — with Rodrigo, 23, hitting the stage at 8 p.m. sharp — there was an audible buzz in the room.

No, not in anticipation of the Filipino American songwriter and former child actress’ return to Philadelphia after first playing two shows at the Met in 2022 — the year she broke out with the “Drivers License” and her Sour debut album — and one night at the then Wells Fargo Center in 2024.

There was plenty of that among an extremely excitable crowd who made up a sea of pink and whose youngest members were less than half of Rodrigo’s age. Most adults were parents, and almost all the dudes were dads.

(No lines at the bar or men’s room; endless queues at the merch table.)

But no, the ambient noise in the room was from the sound of tweeting birds and buzzing insects that preceded the singer appearing on stage in full Flower Child mode, outfitted in a baby doll dress and opening with You Seem’s lead off love song “Drop Dead” while lying partially hidden amidst the abundant blossoms.

It didn’t take long for Rodrigo to rise up and begin bounding about the stage in a high energy performance divided into six acts. She was backed by a band of women and nonbinary musicians that featured star turns by lead guitarist Emily Rosenfeld and drummer Jordan Radnoti.

The sense of camaraderie between Rodrigo and her band was amply evident. The show’s “Summer” second actincluded “My Way” (not the Frank Sinatra song) and the single “Serena Joy,” plus “Bad Idea, Right?” and “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl (both from 2023’s Guts). During this act, Rodrigo not only shouted out each player but she also operated the hand-held camera that spotlighted each musician on the giant curved video screen.

Among the female songwriters that have dominated the pop charts in recent years — from Taylor Swift to SZA, to Billie Eilish to Charli XCX, to Narberth’s own Lizzie McAlpine, who has moved up to arena-sized status and is playing the XMo Arena next June — Rodrigo is the one who’s a rocker at heart.

Her songs have plenty of hooks, and she has a way with tucking a clever, heartfelt, and stinging-filled lyrics into a ballad like “Favorite Crime,” which she sang while accompanying herself on piano, joined by a three-piece string section.

But Rodrigo’s heroes include guitar playing dudes like Jack White, and especially lately, Robert Smith of the Cure. The latter British goth-pop star’s influence is all over You Seem. It shows up in the song “The Cure” as well as in a “Drop Dead” lyric about a guy so hot he knows “all the words to ‘Just Like Heaven’.”

The tormented-by-love “What’s Wrong With Me,” which is sung as a duet with Smith, and is a standout on the album, has inexplicably been left off the set list for most of tour. But Philadelphians got lucky on Saturday: Rodrigo, who’s become a more skilled vocalist with each successive tour, added it as a surprise song on the set list.

Rodrigo the rock star also came forward with her own modest guitar solo on “Maggots For Brains,” and in pop punk rave-ups like “All-American Bitch” which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an early Green Day record.

Until she got around to that one as part of a three-song encore, I was thinking it hadn’t been all that much of a screamy Saturday night out, with less shrieking with delight than I heard at recent Charli XCX and Phoebe Bridgers concerts in the same building.

Fans were for the most part happy to reverentially sing along, with no need of assistance from the key lyrics that occasionally flashed on screen as if to express the essence of Rodrigo’s world view. Such as “They say modern love’s a cruel endeavor / And to that I say, [expletive] it, whatever” from “U + Me + <3.”

In “All American Bitch,” however, Rodrigo channeled all the pent up energy into one moment, which the crowd was ready for, on cue. “I don’t get angry when I’m pissed, I’m the eternal optimist,” she sang. “I scream inside to deal with it.”

With that, the crowd let out an astonishingly loud collective wail of release.

The show avoided many of the trappings of the contemporary pop spectacle. No choreographed dancers, for instance. The only people on stage were the ones actually playing music (or camera operators running around tracking Rodrigo’s every move).

There was one magic trick, however.

Rodrigo spent a good bit of the show on an auxiliary stage toward the back of the standing room-only floor. That’s where she was, wearing a white dress when she sang “The Cure,” the song about the dissolution of a relationship with a repeated incantation that give the tour its name: “‘Cause baby, I’m unraveled, I’m unraveled, I’m unraveled.”

As Rodrigo sang those words, (real) rain poured down on her from overhead, melting her dress little by little until dissolved it into nothing, revealing a blood red undergarment beneath it. Thank goodness her microphone was waterproof. Children, don’t try this at home!

In her brief, stunningly successful career — she’s the first artist ever to have the lead singles from their first three albums top the Billboard Hot 100 — Rodrigo has become a cultural force.

She’s demonstrated that in the past by choosing opening acts like Chappelle Roan that have catapulted to stardom. And in September, she presented her own Daisy Chain Fields music festival in California which featured all female headliners including Sarah MacLachlan, Doechii, Mitski, and Santigold; and raised $20 million for women-focused nonprofit organizations.

Among the up and comers on that bill was Devon Again, the Colorado-raised songwriter whose given name is Devon Johanningmeier.

On Saturday, Johanningmeier began a run as the opening act for the latest leg of “The Unraveled Tour.” The alt-pop singer and bandleader, who has worked with Rodrigo collaborator Dan Nigro, captivated the crowd.

With Alysa Liu-style two-toned hair and a so-excited-to-be-here energy, her raucous set was highlighted by her own “Snake the Drain” and “Cherry Cola” as well as covers of songs by Zara Larsson and Rage Against the Machine.

Olivia Rodrigo with Devon Again at Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St at 7 p.m. on Sunday Nov. 8. xfinitymobilearena.com