Breaking world records and winning numerous awards are things most artists could only dream of, yet at just 19 years old, Olivia Rodrigo has done it all. Two of her songs have over 1.2 billion streams on Spotify. She was nominated for seven grammys. She was named Billboard’s “Woman of the Year” for 2022 and she was in their top Hot 100 New Artist, top Hot 100 Songwriter, and top Overall New Artist lists. 

It’s tremendously impressive how she’s managed to accomplish so much so young and only within a year. But how did she achieve such great success? 

With a unique voice and impressive songwriting skills, Rodrigo is only at the beginning of her career. She started her life as a Disney Channel actress, playing Paige Olvera on the show “Bizaardvark,” then Nini Salazar-Roberts “High School Musical: The Musical the Series.” The first song she ever wrote that was released was for that show, her single “All I Want.” 

During quarantine, Rodrigo started using her spare time to write songs. She released “Drivers License,” on Jan. 8 2021, and it blew up immediately. According to BBC News, on Jan. 12, the world record for Spotify’s most streamed song in one day was broken by her, reaching a total of 17 million streams. “We’ve never seen anything like this. Where you have a newer artist that just comes out of the gate in such a dominant way, and just continues to grow,” Becky Bass said, Spotify’s Global Hits lead. 

Following that, three months later Rodrigo released her second single “Deja Vu” and proved she was no one-hit wonder. Then on May 14, she came out with “Good 4 U,” which went on to win the BRITS International Song of the Year Award of 2022. It turned out to be just as popular, if not more than “Drivers License.”

Alongside her producer, Dan Nigro, they wrote all of Rodrigo’s album “Sour,” which was released on May 21, a week after “Good 4 You.” The most popular new songs that it features are “Traitor,” “Brutal,” and “Happier.” It was named one of the best albums of 2021 by the New York Times and the number one album of 2021 by the Rolling Stone. According to Billboard, the new most-streamed album in a week by a female artist on Spotify became “Sour,” and worldwide there were over 385 million. 

So why was Olivia Rodrigo’s music instantly loved by the world? 

In her songs, she sings about her teenage problems like heartbreak, insecurities, and comparison to others. To express her feelings after her breakup she wrote “Traitor,” “Favorite Crime,” “Enough For You,” “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” and many others. To deal with her insecurities and comparison on social media, she wrote “Brutal” and “Jealousy Jealousy.” 

“Songwriting is a great medium to express emotions that aren’t really fun to talk about, it’s kind of like this fun therapeutic way to talk about feelings that are uncomfortable,” she said to CBS. In an interview with the Rolling Stone, she also said, “people really resonate with authenticity. You can have this catchy melody and the greatest production ever, but truth and vulnerability is really what people resonate with.” 

Her music is admired because of her realness and relatability. She turns her insecurities into amazing songs. People feel like they can relate to her and aren’t alone in their situations, which is more important than just a good tune. Rodrigo took her experiences as a teenage girl and made them into incredible pieces of art.

As the Insider stated, “she embraces selfishness in “Happier,” wrestles with guilt in “Favorite Crime,” unleashes rage and spite in “Good 4 U.” Some of her most powerful and moving lyrics include “they say these are the golden years, but I wish I could disappear,” “you said forever now I drive alone past your street,” and “all I ever wanted was to be enough for you.” 

Although her target demographic is teenage girls, she has fans of all ages. “Connecting with audiences across generations through emotionally charged songs about heartbreak, jealousy and growing up, she’s achieved absolutely incredible chart success for a debut artist,” said Billboard’s Executive Director Hannah Karp. 

For myself, I absolutely love all of Olivia Rodrigo’s music. It never gets old and I could listen to “Sour” for the rest of my life. I remember “Drivers License” kept popping up on my Youtube recommendation, and I was so tired of seeing it I decided to just click on it. I didn’t expect much from it, but boy was I pleasantly surprised. Her way of manipulating words into gorgeous lyrics is unbelievable. 

My personal favorite from her album is “Enough For You,” which is definitely one of her best but underrated songs in my opinion. It’s about her just reminiscing on all that she did but getting nothing in return. It’s not heavily-produced and over the top, which nowadays a lot of songs are. With such deep emotions pouring out of her, it’s for sure one of her most powerful pieces. 

On May 16, Rodrigo performed on the famous Saturday Night Live, something fairly uncommon for such a young and new artist. Then in July of 2021, she was invited to the White House to promote the vaccine for youth, an incredibly rare feat for anyone, let alone a teenager. She also had her own NPR Tiny Desk Concert on Dec. 7, performing her songs “Good 4 U,” “Drivers License,” “Deja Vu,” and “Traitor.”

Moreover, Rodrigo uses all-female bands in her concerts and performances, which has been noticed by a great deal of people, especially since the music industry is undoubtedly dominated by men. The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California found that in 2020, only 20.2% of artists on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts were women. As well as the fact that musicians that play alongside the main artist LIVE are pretty much all of the time men. Olivia Rodrigo is subtly bringing awareness to this through her band and making sure that women get representation. 

At the end of the day, Rodrigo has had such great success in the music industry because of how genuine and vulnerable she is. Everyone feels like they can relate to her through her songs, even if they’ve never gone through the direct experiences she’s been in. What’s more, addressing the youth vaccination problem at the White House and having an all-female band have only helped with her popularity. 

With being so young and having so much more growth ahead of her, fans can’t wait to see what’s to come.