Olivia Rodrigo: American singer and actress (born 2003)

She first became well known for her roles on the Disney television shows Bizaardvark (2016–2019) and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019–2022).

Olivia Rodrigo
Rodrigo in October 2023
Born	Olivia Isabel Rodrigo (2003-02-20) February 20, 2003 (age 21) Murrieta, California, U.S.
Occupations	Singer songwriter actress
Years active	2015–present
Works	Discography
Awards	Full list
Musical career
Genres	Pop pop rock
Instruments	Vocals guitar piano
Labels	Geffen
Website	oliviarodrigo.com
Olivia Rodrigo's voice Olivia Rodrigo speaking about young people getting vaccinated Recorded July 14, 2021
Signature

Rodrigo signed with Geffen Records in 2020. She then released her first song "Drivers License" in 2021 which made Rodrigo popular. Her first studio album Sour was released that same year, and won her three Grammy Awards. A Disney+ documentary, Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U was released in 2022. In 2023, Rodrigo released her second studio album, Guts, which was popular and had good reviews from critics.

Rodrigo has achieved three Billboard Hot 100 number-one songs and two Billboard 200 number-one albums. Her other awards include an American Music Award, seven Billboard Music Awards, and three MTV Video Music Awards. Time named her the 2021 Entertainer of the Year and Billboard named her Woman of the Year in 2022.

Her music has been seen as "emotional" power ballads with her music focused in ending relationships, mental health, and sadness. Her music has been popular with critics, journalists and her fans. Slate called her "Gen-Z's most [talented] new artist". Several other media sources have called her Gen Z's best artists and the musical voice of this generation.

Rodrigo also focuses on fundraisers for women's education and health. She also gives out money to charities that help find cures for rare diseases, support abortion and education programs.

Olivia Isabel Rodrigo was born on February 20, 2003 in Murrieta, California. Her parents are Jennifer, a school teacher, and Chris, a family therapist. She grew up in Temecula, California. Rodrigo was born half-deaf in her left ear. Rodrigo is Filipino American. However, her mother has German and Irish ancestry. She said that her paternal great-grandfather emigrated from the Philippines to the United States as a teenager. 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.

Rodrigo went to Lisa J. Mails Elementary School in Murrieta. She was part of a musical theater group after her classes ended. She later went to Dorothy McElhinney Middle School in Murrieta for a year, until moving to Los Angeles. She moved there after her television career began in 2016. She was homeschooled from then until her graduation in 2021.

 

At age five, her parents signed her up for singing lessons with Jennifer Dustman. She would sign-up Rodrigo in many local singing competitions. Dustman told Rodrigo's parents to put her in acting lessons. She began taking piano lessons at age 9. Rodrigo first became interested in songwriting after listening to country music songs by Taylor Swift, and was playing guitar by age 12.

As a child, she first appeared in an Old Navy commercial.

In 2015, at age twelve, Rodrigo had her first acting role. She played Grace Thomas in direct-to-video movie An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success. She was casted in Disney Channel's Bizaardvark in 2016. She played Paige Olvera, a guitarist, on the show. She played the role for three seasons. In 2017, she appeared in an episode of New Girl.

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. Many critics and fans liked her role and acting. For the series, Rodrigo wrote and sang "All I Want", which was released in November 2019. She left the show at the end of its third season to focus on her music career. In 2020, she was a musical guest for The Disney Family Singalong.

Sour

Rodrigo signed with Geffen Records in 2020. She wanted a record deal to give herself ownership of the masters of her music. On January 8, 2021, she released her first song, "Drivers License", which she co-wrote with producer Dan Nigro. A week of its release, "Drivers License" was became popular, and broke Spotify's record twice. One 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. It went on to break another Spotify record for the first song in history to hit 80 million streams in seven days. The song came out at number one on Billboard Hot 100, and reached number-one in many countries. Rodrigo said that "It's been the absolute craziest week of my life ... My entire life just, like, [changed] in an instant."

 

On April 1, 2021, Rodrigo released another song, "Deja Vu". It came out at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. This made her the first artist to have their first two releases in the top 10 of the Hot 100. Her third song, "Good 4 U", came out on May 14, 2021. It became her second song to reach number one on the Hot 100. Sour, her first studio album, was released on May 21, 2021. It had good reviews. In a review by Slate, it said that the album's first three songs helped create Rodrigo's "early status as Gen-Z's most [talented] new artist". According to Clash, Rodrigo is seen as one of Generation Z's best artists. Variety called her "the voice of her generation" in its cover story of Rodrigo. Sour came out at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and spent a total of five weeks at the spot, becoming the longest lasting number-one album by a female artist in 2021.

In June 2021, Rodrigo released Sour Prom, a prom-themed concert movie on YouTube. Three days later, Time named her Entertainer of the Year. In an Instagram post on December 24, 2021, Rodrigo uploaded a short video of a Christmas song called "The Bels" that she wrote and recorded at age five. By the end of the year, Billboard said that Rodrigo ended the year with the most songs sold. She had 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. In the United States and United Kingdom, Sour was the third and fourth bestselling album of 2021. Sour and "Drivers License" were also Spotify's most streamed album and song globally. To support Sour, Rodrigo began her first tour, the Sour Tour, which ran from April to July 2022.

Disney+ released a documentary movie about Rodrigo titled Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U. It is about the making of Sour. It was released on March 25, 2022. Rodrigo was nominated seven times at the 64th 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". She won the awards for Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album for Sour, and Best Pop Solo Performance for "Drivers License". In 2022, while creating her next album Guts, Rodrigo went to a poetry class at University of Southern California. She ended up reusing one of her homework assignments into the song "Lacy".

 

Guts

On August 16 2023, Rodrigo became the youngest artist to receive the BRIT Billion Award for having over one billion digital streams in the United Kingdom. She was the 19th artist to receive a BRIT Billion Award. Rodrigo's second album, Guts was released on September 8, 2023, and was at the top the Billboard 200. She said that the album was about growing up and learning about herself. Writing the album, Rodrigo said she felt as if she had grown "ten years" between the ages of 18 and 20. Guts was very popular with the critics with BBC News calling it the most critically popular album of 2023. The album's main song, "Vampire", was released on June 30. It became Rodrigo's third song to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100. This made her the first artist ever to have the lead songs from two career-opening albums at No. 1 on the Hot 100. The album's second song, "Bad Idea Right?", was released on August 11, 2023. It reached the top 10 in the United States and United Kingdom.

On October 9, 2023 Rodrigo sang songs from Guts in an special concert for American Express in Los Angeles. All the money made from ticket sales went to her Fund 4 Good nonprofit organization. She released an EP titled Guts: The Secret Tracks and it became one of the top sellers during Record Store Day. On November 3, Rodrigo released the song "Can't Catch Me Now" for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. That same year, she was a musical guest for Saturday Night Live for a second time. She was a musical guest before in 2021.

 

To support Guts, Rodrigo began her second tour, the Guts World Tour, which will run from February to August 2024 in North America, United Kingdom and Europe. On March 20, 2024, Rodrigo announced that she would release a 'deluxe version' of Guts with five new songs at her tour stop in Chicago. She released Guts (Spilled) and the song "Obsessed" on March 22, 2024.

Style and inspirations

Rodrigo named Taylor Swift and Lorde as her main musical inspirations. She called herself Swift's biggest fan "in the whole world". Rodrigo later went on to give musical credits to Swift on her song "1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back" and "Deja Vu". In 2022, she called The White Stripes band member Jack White her "hero of all heroes". She also said she was inspired by Alanis Morissette, Kacey Musgraves, Fiona Apple, St. Vincent, Cardi B, Gwen Stefani, Avril Lavigne, and Lana Del Rey.

Rodrigo's musical voice is soprano. Media sources and journalists have called her a pop artist. Her songs have been seen as pop rock, teen pop, and indie pop styles, as well as 1990s alternative rock. Rodrigo said that she wants to be a songwriter and not "the biggest pop star that ever lived". Her music has also been seen as "emotional" power ballads with her music focused in ending relationships, mental health, and sadness.

From 2017 to 2018, Rodrigo and her Bizaardvark co-star Madison Hu worked together on Instagram to have their fans spread kindness to fight against cyberbullying. Rodrigo and Hu worked together again with the non-profit organization My Friend's Place to help homeless youth find shelter, food, work, education, and healthcare. The event raised over $740,000 for local homeless youth. She also supported awareness for women studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

 

In February 2021, Rodrigo sold merchandise called "Spicy Pisces T-shirts", on her website, with all money going to organizations that supports young girls' education and scholarships. In June 2021, she sold her clothes, wardrobe and all items from her music videos with all money going to charitable organization. Rodrigo donated a part of her Sour Tour ticket sales to an organization that supports female survivors of war by helping them rebuild their lives after war devastation.

On July 13, 2021, Rodrigo helped the Joe Biden administration to promote COVID-19 vaccinations among young people in the United States. She met with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Anthony Fauci, to talk about her efforts. CNN said that Rodrigo would record videos about the importance of young people getting vaccinated.

After the U.S. Surpeme Court removed the abortion protections of Roe v. Wade, Rodrigo sang "Fuck You", with British singer Lily Allen, at Glastonbury Festival. She sang the song for the associate justices who voted to remove abortion access.

On November 20, 2022, Rodrigo worked with Billie Eilish, John Legend, Tom Holland to raise money to find a cure for epidermolysis bullosa and other rare diseases. In December 2022, Rodrigo, along with Chris Stapleton and Selena Gomez, donated their personal items to support musical education and talent programs in the United States. In January 2023, Rodrigo helped donate her personal items to the MusiCares Foundation Charity Relief Auction to help musicians who are not making money with their financial needs.

Rodrigo created a charity fund called Fund 4 Good to support reproductive healthcare of women, in October 2023. Part of the money raised during her Guts World Tour will go to the fund, and support the National Network of Abortion Funds. Condoms and Plan B pills were given out at Rodrigo's St. Louis concert on March 12, 2024, where abortion is illegal under state law.

 

Rodrigo won many awards during her career, including three Grammy Awards, seven Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, four iHeartRadio Music Awards, and a Juno Award. She was also nominated for two People's Choice Awards, an American Music Award, and a Brit Award.

Rodrigo was added on the 2021 edition of Time magazine's 100 Next list, and was named Time's Entertainer of the Year for 2021. Billboard also honored her with their Woman of the Year in 2022. The magazine included her on its yearly 21 Under 21 list in 2021 and 2022.

Rodrigo was named to lists such as the Bloomberg 50, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in the music category. She has also was given "Songwriter of the Year" honors by Variety in 2021.

Albums

• Sour (2021)
• Guts (2023)

Movies

Television