10 things to know about Olivia Rodrigo, the new American pop sensation

Portrait At 20, the former Disney child star is shaking up the world music scene. After releasing her second album, she will perform at the Accor Arena on June 14 and 15.

1.Disney

Channel is full of precocious talent. After Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, the firm focused, in 2016, on pre-teen Olivia Rodrigo. Three years later, she landed the leading role in “High School Musical: The Musical, the Series”, one of the first original productions on Disney+, which revealed her talent as a singer. But it is above all the social network TikTok which allowed him to propel himself directly to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 ranking from his first single, “Drivers License”. In 2021, “Time” magazine named her “artist of the year”.

2. Records

Released in January 2021, “Drivers License” breaks the record for the most listened to song in twenty-four hours on Spotify with 17 million streams. His single “Good 4 U” went straight to first place on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the most streamed song in a week. But Olivia Rodrigo doesn’t only shine on streaming platforms. Awarded in April 2022 at the Grammy Awards, the young singer lets one of her three trophies fall to the ground, splitting it in two. Coincidence? Twelve years earlier, Taylor Swift had also dropped one of her awards at the same ceremony.

3. Taylor Swift

Olivia Rodrigo has been a fan of the singer since she was 5 years old. “It was very inspiring for me to see someone take control of their career and their life like that. » After being congratulated by her childhood idol on the success of her debut album “Sour”, the young popstar finally met her at the Brit Awards, where they posed together for Instagram. But the tabloids are having fun spreading a rumor: Olivia Rodrigo’s new single, “Vampire”, would be strongly inspired by a Taylor hit…

4. Philippines

Olivia Rodrigo is Filipino-American. His paternal great-grandfather immigrated to the United States when he was still a teenager. Throughout her childhood, she was immersed in this mix of cultures and cultivated a strong attachment to her Pacific roots.

5. Fatherly

Family musical tastes had a big influence on her music: No Doubt, The White Stripes, the heavy metal bands of the 1980s, the feminist rock of Riot Grrrl… “My father introduced me to all the groups he had seen in concert at my age”, confided Olivia Rodrigo. This daddy hen accompanied her to see The Cure and Depeche Mode, groups that fascinated her.

6. Snake

When she was just 4 years old, Olivia Rodrigo didn’t own a dog or a cat, but a pet snake called Stripes, which means stripes in French. “Everyone was terrified, remembers the singer. We brought Stripes to my preschool and the kids were able to hold it in their hands. »

7. “Barbie”

Olivia Rodrigo saw the film “Barbie” as a wake-up call. “It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen a film that’s centered around a woman, that isn’t sexual or doesn’t talk about her pain or trauma.”, she told the “Guardian”. The young star admits, on the other hand, to having no desire to watch the series “The Idol”, which has been widely criticized in particular for the gratuitous hypersexualization of Lily-Rose Depp.

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8. Catharsis

If his first album directly evoked adolescent torments, “Guts” is almost a self-portrait. In both works, the approach is cathartic. ” In my opinion, […] that’s music. Expressing feelings that are difficult to express, or socially unacceptable. Especially when you’re a girl. »

9. Feminism

The singer of “Bad Idea Right?” » fights for women’s rights. She was the face of the 2018 “She can STEM” campaign, which encourages girls to engage in the traditionally male-dominated fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

10. Rebel

During the Glastonbury festival in June 2022, Olivia Rodrigo covered a Lily Allen song, “Fuck You”, to denounce the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal the Roe vs Wade ruling which guaranteed the right to abortion . “I am devastated and terrified. So many women and so many girls will die because of this. […] This song is for the judges, she said, listing their names. We hate you! »