How Olivia Rodrigo went from Disney actor to global pop phenomenon in a single day
Taylor Swift calls her “my baby”, Niall Horan is on speed dial, and Olivia Rodrigo’s single is smashing charts. And she’s only 17.
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Olivia Rodrigo is the overnight teen pop phenomenon absolutely no one heard coming.
She is the reason millions of heartbroken music fans are currently wiping away tears while blasting her runaway smash single Drivers License on repeat in their headphones. And cars, of course.
Rodrigo’s “official” debut single became the first big hit of 2021 in a matter of hours after its release on January 8, smashing all of the streaming records.
It went on to go straight to No. 1 in Australia, the UK and US, breaking the Spotify record of most streams for a song in a single week with almost 66 million spins.
Even with her Disney pedigree – the 17-year-old stars in the mockumentary drama High School Musical: The Musical: The Series – Rodrigo’s debut with her super-sad, break-up pop ballad has shocked music industry pundits with how fast it went viral.
“This doesn’t happen often … We don’t stand here at Apple Music and watch this kind of thing happen,” Apple Music DJ Zane Lowe told the young star last week as she made pop music history.
Rodrigo’s meteoric ascent to pop stardom could be all about the song.
2021 got off to a rocky start, so a simple, piano-driven song with cool beats and a clever narrative about the newly-accredited heartbroken driver cruising past the street of their ex is the perfect soundtrack for all the melancholy and tragedy gripping the world right now.
There’s also a well-placed F-bomb in the bridge and Australian music fans, in particular, have a habit of sending songs with a carefully-crafted expletive straight to No.1. Just ask Mumford and Sons.
Rodrigo also had an army of early adopters ready to rally behind Drivers License.
The actor landed on the radar of Swifties after Taylor Swift posted the teen’s cover version of her song Cruel Summer from the 2019 album Lover on Instagram last year.
The self-professed “biggest Swiftie in the whole world” understandably “died” when her Queen responded to Rodrigo’s post last week showing Drivers License in company with two of Swift’s singles in the top 3 of the American iTunes charts.
Swift posted: “I say that’s my baby and I’m really proud”.
thinking about legally changing my name to "Taylor Swifts baby" pic.twitter.com/EDn6xo15kW
— Olivia Rodrigo (@Olivia_Rodrigo) January 10, 2021
But there’s no pop triumph without drama and Drivers Licence’s lyrics have provoked a teen love triangle fan theory which has widely circulated on TikTok.
Fans have forensically examined the lyrics of the track which sounds like it was plucked from the pages of Rodrigo’s tearstained journal or phone notes.
The theory goes that her High School Musical series onscreen and unconfirmed off-screen love interest Joshua Bassett started dating 21-year-old fellow Disney star Sabrina Carpenter after he and Rodrigo broke up in mid 2020.
Fans cite as evidence the lyrics: “You’re probably with that blonde girl, who always made me doubt. She’s so much older than me, she’s everything I’m insecure about”.
Rodrigo has deftly parried any questions about the identity of the boy who broke her heart and inspired the song beyond confirming she was “literally crying in my living room” as she poured her angst into a pop power ballad.
“It’s been the absolute craziest week of my life. My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant,” Rodrigo said in an interview last week.
She now has Niall Horan on speed dial for pop stardom advice, has been covered by other pop stars already and has become Cardi B’s new BFF on social media.
Whether Drivers License proves to be the launch of a glittering pop career rather than a one-hit wonder will be determined when Rodrigo releases her debut EP this year.
But the global music industry shouldn’t have been that shocked Rodrigo’s overnight success with a song like Drivers License, part Swift melodrama, part Lorde innovation.
Teen artists writing from their hearts in their bedrooms on their phones or laptop have been among the biggest stars to emerge in the streaming era from international chartslayers Billie Eilish and Tate McRae to homegrown sensations including The Kid Laroi and Ruel.
OTHER STREAM DREAM TEENS TO CHECK OUT:
Tate McRae
The 17-year-old Canadian triple threat landed on the entertainment radar when she parlayed her profile as a back-up dancer on the Justin Bieber Purpose tour into a starring role as a finalist on So You Think You Can Dance in America.
Her YouTube covers caught the attention of a US label and McRae quickly took over the airwaves globally with her breakout break-up track You Broke Me First which dropped just as the world was locked down by COVID-19.
The Kid Laroi
Australia’s first global hip hop chart star, the 17-year-old First Nations artist owned the alternative airwaves last year was his debut mixtape F … Love, which peaked at No. 3 on the US Billboard charts.
He kicked off 2021 with a bang as his single Without You adding another 200 million streams to his stats after he cracked the one billion mark in November last year.
Sycco
The 19-year-old singer, songwriter and producer is guaranteed to be a presence in the 2021 Hottest 100 thanks to her future pop earworms which have saturated the alternative airwaves over the past two years.
She landed a record deal in late 2020 with Future Classic, the label home of Flume and G Flip as her single, the electro-pop banger Dribble, clocked millions of streams and latest release Germs spread on streaming services.
Ruel
Yep, the 18-year-old soul pop sensation continues to make good on his prodigious talent, racking up the millions of streams with each new single since pricking ears of everyone from Elton John to an army of teens since arriving on the charts at the age of 14.
His third EP Bright Lights, Red Eyes was released last October, with the innovative artist launching his new music with a 24-hour web TV channel RuelVision which serves as an audition tape for future acting roles with his comedic skits.
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