Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Isabel Rodrigo[1][2] was born on February 20, 2003,[3] at Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta, California, the only child of school teacher Jennifer and family therapist Chris Rodrigo.[4][5][6] She grew up in neighboring Temecula.[7] Rodrigo was born half-deaf in her left ear.[8] Rodrigo is a Filipino American;[9] her father is of Filipino descent[10] while her mother has German and Irish ancestry.[4][11] She has stated that her paternal great-grandfather emigrated from the Philippines as a teenager and her family follows Filipino traditions and cuisine.[10][12] She grew up listening to her parents' favorite alternative rock music, such as the bands No Doubt, Pearl Jam, the White Stripes, and Green Day.[13]

Rodrigo started taking acting and vocal lessons in kindergarten and learned to play piano soon after.[6][14] Rodrigo attended Lisa J. Mails Elementary School in Murrieta, participating in their after-school musical theater program.[15] Rodrigo was playing guitar by age 12.[14] Rodrigo first became interested in songwriting after listening to country music, especially singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.[13] She attended Dorothy McElhinney Middle School in Murrieta for a year, but when she landed her role on Bizaardvark moved to Los Angeles[15] and was homeschooled from 2016 until she graduated in 2021.[4][16]

Rodrigo first appeared onscreen in an Old Navy commercial.[17][18] Shortly after in 2015, at age twelve, she made her acting debut portraying the lead role of Grace Thomas in direct-to-video film An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success.[19] In 2016, Rodrigo received recognition for starring as Paige Olvera, a guitarist in the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark,[20][21][22] and played the role for three seasons.[23]

In February 2019, she was cast in the starring role of Nini Salazar-Roberts on the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which premiered in November of that year.[24] Rodrigo was praised for her performance,[25][26] with Joel Keller from Decider describing her as "especially magnetic".[27] In 2022, she left the show at the end of its third season to focus on her music career.[28]

Rodrigo signed with Geffen Records in 2020.[29] She negotiated the record deal to secure for herself ownership of the masters of her music.[4] On January 8, 2021, she released her debut single, "Drivers License", which she co-wrote with producer Dan Nigro.[30][31][32] Within the week of its release, "Drivers License" was critically acclaimed,[33] and broke Spotify's record twice for most daily streams ever for a non-holiday song with over 15.7 million global streams on January 11 and over 17 million global streams the next day.[34][35] It went on to break another Spotify record for the first song in history to hit 80 million streams in 7 days.[36] The song debuted at number one on Billboard Hot 100,[37] and reached number-one in numerous other countries.[38][39] Rodrigo stated in an interview that "It's been the absolute craziest week of my life ... My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant."[40]

On April 1, 2021, Rodrigo released her follow-up single, "Deja Vu", which debuted at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100,[41] making her the first artist to debut their first two releases in the top 10 of the Hot 100.[42] The third single preceding her debut album, "Good 4 U", followed on May 14, 2021, and became her second single to debut at number one on the Hot 100.[43][44] Sour, her debut studio album, was released on May 21, 2021, to critical acclaim.[45] Slate's Chris Molanphy said its first three singles alone established Rodrigo's "early status as Gen-Z's most versatile new artist".[46] According to Clash critic Robin Murray, Rodrigo is regarded as one of Generation Z's finest artists,[47] while Variety dubbed her "the voice of her generation" in its cover story of Rodrigo.[13] Sour debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and spent a total of five weeks at the spot, becoming the longest reigning number-one album by a female artist in 2021.[48]

Rodrigo performing at Massey Hall, Toronto during her Sour Tour.

In June 2021, Rodrigo premiered Sour Prom, a prom-themed concert film on YouTube.[49] Three days later, she was named Entertainer of the Year by Time.[50] In an Instagram post on December 24, 2021, Rodrigo uploaded a snippet of a Christmas song called "The Bels" that she wrote and recorded at age five.[51][52] According to Billboard, Rodrigo closed 2021 as the best-selling singles artist worldwide,[53] placing eight songs on the year-end Global 200 chart, including "Drivers License" at number four, "Good 4 U" at number nine, and "Deja Vu" at number 27.[54] In the US and UK, Sour was respectively the third and fourth best-selling album of 2021.[55][56] Sour and "Drivers License" were also respectively Spotify's most streamed album and song globally.[57] The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) ranked Rodrigo as the tenth best selling artist of 2021 and Sour as the second best-selling album of 2021.[58] To support Sour, Rodrigo embarked on her debut headlining tour, the Sour Tour, which ran from April to July 2022; it included stops in the United States, Canada, and Europe.[59]

Rodrigo's Disney+ documentary film Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U, which details the making of Sour, was released on March 25, 2022.[60] Rodrigo received seven nominations at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year for Sour, and Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "Drivers License".[61] She won the awards for Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album for Sour, and Best Pop Solo Performance for "Drivers License".[62]

Rodrigo announced the title of her second album, Guts, which was released on September 8, 2023; she released the album's lead single, "Vampire", on June 30.[63][64] Rodrigo described the album as about "growing pains" and figuring out who she is at this point in her life. She felt like she grew "10 years" between the ages of 18 and 20, a process she describes as a natural part of "growth", which she hopes to reflect with the record.[65] "Vampire" became her third single to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100.[66] The album's second single, "Bad Idea Right?", was released on August 11, 2023.[67] It reached the top 10 in the US and UK.[68][69] On August 16, Rodrigo became the youngest artist to receive the BRIT Billion Award for achieving over one billion digital streams in the United Kingdom.[70]

Rodrigo names Taylor Swift and Lorde as her idols and main musical inspirations,[71] and dubs herself Swift's biggest fan "in the whole world".[72] Rodrigo later going on to give interpolation credits to Swift and Jack Antonoff her song "1 step forward, 3 steps back" and retroactively crediting Swift, Antonoff and Annie Clark on her song "Deja Vu".[73] She dubs The White Stripes band member Jack White her "hero of all heroes".[74] Her other influences include Alanis Morissette, Kacey Musgraves,[75] Fiona Apple, St. Vincent,[76] Cardi B,[77] Gwen Stefani,[78] Avril Lavigne[79] and Lana Del Rey.[80]

Rodrigo's voice type is identified as soprano.[81][82] Media outlets generally describe Rodrigo as a pop artist,[83][84] musically rendering to pop rock,[85] teen pop,[86] and indie pop styles,[87] as well as channeling 1990s alternative rock.[84] Rodrigo has stated that she wants to be a songwriter and not "the biggest pop star that ever lived", and chose to sign with Interscope/Geffen Records because its CEO John Janick praised her songwriting, not her "potential star quality".[4] Music journalist Laura Snapes called Rodrigo a "flag-bearer" for a new wave of songwriters who incline towards power ballads "that are as emotional as ever, but project that emotion inward, trading bombast for hush", and described her musical style as rooted in heartache, mental health, and sadness, without being melodramatic, expressing more realistic perspectives than resilient.[88]