Mia Rodriguez, pop star interrupted: ‘You’re kind of just wasting away your adolescence’

With millions of followers and millions more plays, the teenage Australian singer was on the cusp of both stardom and adulthood – then Covid happened

In another time, the past 18 months would have been huge for Australian pop singer Mia Rodriguez.

In April 2020, the then 17-year-old had a hit with her second single Psycho – an impish confection of bass, percussion and processed screams. Powered by her more than two million TikTok followers, the song has clocked 27 million plays across YouTube and Spotify, landing her a global deal with Atlantic Records.

“I lost the motivation to post videos because I was just stuck inside all day.”