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Journalism of Courage
American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo, who made history at the Grammys 2022 by snapping up three trophies in the categories of Best New Artist, Best Pop Solo Performance (for ‘Drivers License’) and Best Pop Vocal Album (for her debut album ‘Sour’), wanted to be an Olympic gymnast as a child. Years later, the 19-year-old Los Angeles girl who was named ‘Entertainer of the Year’ by Time magazine in 2021, has skipped, leapt, and landed on the podium on music’s biggest stage.
From Disney to top
Rodrigo played a guitarist in Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark, and was cast in 2019 for the Disney series ‘High School Musical’, where she wrote the song ‘All I Want’. It figured at number 90 in the US charts, and Rodrigo grabbed more eyeballs than the other Disney-created stars like Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, and Selena Gomez could on their debuts.
The singer-songwriter consciously tried to break out of the Disney factory mould and craft her own identity. She posted her cuts on Instagram, nurturing a loyal listener base. She did cover versions of Taylor Swift’s songs, one of which, ‘Cruel Summer’, was shared by Swift herself. Rodrigo then wrote ‘Deja Vu’, which trended alongside songs from Swift’s album ‘Evermore’.
Drivers License, Rodrigo’s proper début single, followed in 2021. It was a robust rendition of teen angst, which caught on with young people globally. It smashed records on Spotify, and became number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in a week. Billboard called it the “Runaway Hit of 2021”, and The New York Times quoted Jeremy Erlich, co-head of music at Spotify, as saying the song had “a ton of X-factor that made [it] the perfect storm”. Rodrigo released her debut album, ‘Sour’, in the middle of the year — it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and spent five weeks there.
More than a teen icon
In July 2021, Rodrigo visited the White House to meet President Joe Biden, and encouraged America’s youth to get vaccinated before any other pop icon did. Building on her role as a public service ambassador, Rodrigo became an institute speaker and panelist for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
Rodrigo came out of Disney’s candyfloss dream factory, but won accolades for voicing the angst, conflict, and struggles of American teenagers. Her multi-culturalism — her father is a Filipino-American and her mother has German and Irish ancestry — has helped.
She is also an easy wordsmith who delivers the message pointedly, without mush or distracting instrumentation.
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