All-female Daisy Chain Fields festival unites women

Evoking the same do-it-yourself pop-rock feminism of her '90s musical influences, Olivia Rodrigo has raised $US20 million ($A28 million) for women's well-being with a benefit show that activated her young audience.

Daisy Chain Fields united a women-led lineup boasting queer pop star Chappell Roan, breakout rapper Doechii and riot grrrl pioneers Bikini Kill behind issues of women's health, workplace protections and legal rights.

Ahead of Saturday's festival in Irvine, California, Rodrigo announced the show had already raised enough to make a $US10 million ($A14 million) donation to 10 nonprofit partners including Planned Parenthood, National Women's Law Center and Black Mamas Matter Alliance.

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates pledged another $US10 million ($A14 million) through her Pivotal Ventures in a surprise appearance at the start of Rodrigo's set, calling her "a force" and praising her for "showing a new generation how much their voices matter".

Speaking on Friday alongside the beneficiaries, Rodrigo said the festival's artists and activists give her hope despite the "regression of women's rights" today.

"That's actually why I fell in love with the name 'Daisy Chain,'" she said.

"It served as a reminder of how individual parts can come together to create something strong and unbreakable."

Rodrigo, 23, has made a name channelling the rage and dissatisfaction of modern romance into chart-topping songs that are equal parts Taylor Swift and Alanis Morissette.

Few superstars are better suited, then, to bridge the gap between Gen Z and non-profits, which have struggled to build relationships with younger donors who tend to prefer informal ways of giving.

All-star benefit concerts have long been popular for driving millions of dollars toward everything from refugee aid and famine relief to pandemic response and natural disasters. But it's been decades since a young artist with Rodrigo's following brought her peers together for gender justice.

That focus comes as US President Donald Trump attempts to overhaul family planning grants that reproductive health clinics use to provide birth control and treat sexually transmitted infections.

His administration paused $US27.5 million ($A38.3 million) last year for such organisations, including some Planned Parenthood affiliates, before officials agreed to restore the money.

Rodrigo took inspiration from Lilith Fair, the all-women festival that raised $US10 million ($A14 million) for charity from 1997 to 1999. Sarah McLachlan, who founded the show to dispel the music industry's notion they couldn't book women consecutively, is listed as a special guest of Daisy Chain Fields.

Planned Parenthood National Director of Arts and Entertainment Caren Spruch recalled working on Lilith Fair. Concert outreach has long been an important tool to reach people "where they are," she said.