THE RISE OF TEEN STAR OLIVIA
MOVE OVER TAYLOR SWIFT! THE FORMER DISNEY DARLING HAS STEPPED INTO THE SPOTLIGHT AND SHE’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE
When Olivia Rodrigo turned 18 back in February, she started navigating the typical milestones of adulthood: graduating from high school, moving out on her own, along with figuring out how to grocery shop, cook and clean for herself. “It’s been a learning experience,” she recently told GQ magazine. Some experiences for the teen though aren’t quite as normal, namely dealing with her ascent to pop stardom.
The past eight months have been full on for Rodrigo. There hasn’t been quite as much hysteria since Taylor Swift catapulted herself into mainstream music back in the late noughties. In January, the teen released her first single ‘drivers license’, a sombre and sorrowful ballad about young heartbreak. It debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and quickly smashed Spotify’s record for the most song streams in a week.
While her fellow gen Z’s dissected the lyrics and foraged through TikTok looking for clues about the rumoured romance between Rodrigo and her former co-star (plus the alleged third wheel), older generations were also putting the song on repeat – likely fuelled by the all too familiar feeling of lost love that the lyrics so beautifully capture.
“I just think that speaks to the universal nature of heartbreak,” she explained to GQ about the song’s crossgenerational appeal. “Literally the week after ‘drivers license’ came out, I was still on-set for High School Musical and [production assistants] that I never really talked to, older men, they’d come up to me and be like, ‘We just went through a break-up, and this song is just changing my life – this song is exactly how I feel.’
I was like, ‘Oh, my God – that’s so cool. You never confided in me before, but this is so cool that it has affected you.’”
For the uninitiated, Rodrigo didn’t just appear out of thin air. Much like those that came before her (think Miley Cyrus,
Selena Gomez and one of Rodrigo’s personal faves, Britney Spears), the singer’s younger fans were already familiar with her, thanks to her work on Disney shows Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. But although Rodrigo is “very aware of that classic ‘Disney pop girl’ archetype”, it’s not something she wants to subscribe to.
“My music is definitely separate from my acting in a way I always dreamed would happen. When ‘drivers license’ came out, everyone was like, ‘I have no idea who this Olivia Rodrigo girl is, but I love this song,’” she previously told Nylon magazine. “That is the absolute dream for me, because I’ve always wanted to be taken seriously as a songwriter. Being an actor can interfere with that, just because being an actor is based on telling lies, and being a songwriter is based on telling the absolute, whole truth.”
While the star still has two years left on her contract with HSMTMTS, it’s clear music is her focus. She released her debut album Sour in May, with it having a similar effect on fans and critics alike. “I’m just making music that I love and that I feel passionate about,” she explained to Nylon. “It’s who I am.”
As her lyrics can attest, Rodrigo is wise beyond her years. She stays off social media for the most part, and after watching her idol Taylor Swift’s fight to own her music, has retained control of her master recordings.
As for her love-life, it seems Rodrigo has had enough heartbreak for now.
“I’m so happy for the first time in so long, I just don’t want to f--k with it, you know what I mean?” she admitted to GQ of staying single. “I just love my girlfriends and love my job and am exactly where I’ve always wanted to be. Everything else is just icing on the cake.” Though, she might reconsider when it comes time to writing that second album. Heartbreak, after all, is the best inspiration.
By Sara Tapia