Olivia Rodrigo’s latest music video is a sharp departure from the pop-punk angst of projects past.
Created for her cover of The Magnetic Fields’ song, “The Book of Love,” the music video is a beautiful yet sobering journey of childhood under conflict, with clips filmed by children in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Yemen.
Rodrigo recorded the song for War Child Records’ new charity album, “Help(2),” which supports global nonprofit War Child and its efforts to “protect, educate, and stand up for the rights of children living through conflict around the world.”
War Child Records released its first “Help” album in 1995, which was created by Paul McCartney, Sinéad O’Connor, Radiohead, and more, to raise money for the Bosnia conflict in the 1990s.
War Child Records’ “Help(2)” is available now. Photo courtesy of War Child Records/Instagram
“The album is still hailed as one of the greatest charity albums of all time and helped set War Child on the proud course it now follows,” a statement from War Child Records reads.
Other charity albums have been released in the years since, but “Help(2)” is especially dedicated to the world’s most pressing conflicts around the globe today. In addition to Rodrigo, artists on the album include Arctic Monkeys, Arlo Parks, Beabadoobee, Big Thief, Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg, and more.
Rodrigo’s cover of “The Book of Love” makes the perfect soundtrack for War Child Records’ new video, which was released a week ago.
In it, children from conflict areas show clips of their everyday lives, running around and laughing in areas strewn with rubble, playing in open fields, and capturing sounds of planes overhead.
Rodrigo sings a soft ballad in the background, with strings echoing in harmony with the children’ s b-roll.
“The book of love is long and boring / And written very long ago,” she croons. “It’s full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes / And things we’re all too young to know.”
Rodrigo herself does not appear in the music video at all, instead providing the backing vocals as children tell their own stories from a first-person lens.
“She was such a pro and was happy to take a gung-ho approach to it,” James Ford, the producer of the “Help(2)” record told Billboard. “She just walked into the studio and nailed it.”
In addition to giving it her all on the song, Rodrigo has been outspoken about her support for the people of Palestine, writing a statement Instagram in July of 2025.
“There are no words to describe the heartbreak I feel witnessing the devastation that is being inflicted upon innocent people,” she shared on her Stories. “It is horrific and completely unacceptable. To give up on them is to give up on our shared humanity.”
Watch War Child Records’ video for Olivia Rodrigo’s song, “The Book of Love:”
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Header image by Justin Higuchi (CC BY 2.0)
