Fil-Am actress and singer Olivia Rodrigo smashes streaming charts with debut single, receives Taylor Swift nod
Olivia Rodrigo, star of The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (THSMTMTS), is making waves with the release of her debut single Drivers License, which has gained praises not only from music publications but also from the Pop Queen herself, Taylor Swift.
The 17-year-old’s emotional ballad, which many believe was about her ex-boyfriend and THSMTMTS co-star Joshua Bassett, owned the major streaming platform charts since its release on Jan. 8.
The song claimed the No. 1 spot on the US Spotify streaming chart and No. 1 on the platform’s Global Top 50. As of this writing, it is also currently enjoying the No. 1 spot at the Apple Music's Top 100 Global and its all-genre US iTunes sales chart.
Over the weekend, Olivia, a huge Swiftie, posted a screenshot of the US iTunes chart that shows her song trailing behind Taylor Swift’s evermore hits, It’s Time to Go and Right Where you Left Me. Her caption reads: “Next to Taylor on the US iTunes chart I’m in a puddle of tears *loudly crying emoji*"
A couple of days later, Taylor Swift commented on Olivia’s post, “I say that’s my baby and I am really proud.”
As a Swiftie, Olivia was ecstatic with Taylor’s comment and showed a clip of her reaction on a separate post that she captioned, “what is breathing.”
Olivia, who co-wrote her debut single with songwriter and producer Daniel Nigro, sings about an ex who has since moved on from her. Many speculate that the song is about her ex Joshua Bassett, who is now rumored to be in a relationship with their co-star Sabrina Carpenter. However, Olivia has not yet revealed if the song is indeed about Joshua.
Rolling Stone said of Olivia and her song, “Both she and the moving power ballad are meant to completely dominate 2021.” While Billboard took notice and described the song as “a taut power ballad and soon-to-be smash” and said Olivia’s talent “hints at a promising future following this red-hot start.”
Olivia is known for her role as Paige Olvera in Disney’s Bizaardvark and Nini Salazar Roberts in THSMTMTS. In 2019, she penned a song for THSMTMTS titled All I Want, which has been streamed over 180 million times on Spotify and was certified Gold in the US.
Olivia was born to an American mother of Irish and German descent, and a Filipino-American father.
Speaking about her heritage, she revealed in an interview with the Center for Asian American Media that her paternal great-grandfather immigrated to the US from the Philippines when he was a teenager, and that she grew up with Filipino traditions, including having lumpia during Thanksgiving.
Olivia also expressed on the interview that traveling to the Philippines is part of her bucket list.
Watch her hit song Drivers License here:
Banner image photos from www.instagram.com/olivia.rodrigo