While you might think Olivia Rodrigo would be annoyed by the fact so many people think her number-one hit, “Drivers License,” is about a love triangle between herself, co-star Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter, apparently, you’d be wrong.
Asked by ELLE magazine how it feels to have her love life discussed by millions of people on social media, Olivia says, “It’s truly any songwriter’s dream,” because it means that people are really connecting with the song.
“There’s something so powerful in being vulnerable and open, like, ‘This is my life, and I’m f***ing sad.’ Or, ‘I’m insecure,’” Olivia explains. “That’s what makes songwriting so special.”
In her ELLE cover story, Olivia admits she was concerned that “Drivers License” was so successful that it would be impossible to follow it up. “I thought I was going to be really in my head, like, ‘I’m never going to write a song as good as that again,’ ” she says. But instead, Olivia reveals, “This song has given me a lot of confidence in my voice.”
Here are a few other things we learned from Olivia’s cover story:
–Her musical heroes and influences include Gracie Abrams, daughter of director JJ Abrams, as well as Fiona Apple, Smashing Pumpkins, Gwen Stefani, Alanis Morissette and, of course, Taylor Swift.
–Her parents’ first hint that Olivia was interested in performing came when she was four and she built a microphone stand out of a Tinkertoy set. They signed her up for voice lessons at age five.
–The first song Olivia wrote on the piano was “Superman,” a feminist anthem about a girl who doesn’t need to be saved by a superhero.
–She’s obsessed with Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who died in 1954.
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