If you were born before the 2000's and are wondering why everyone everywhere is talking about this song we did a little research for you.
Yes ignore the missing apostrophe it was intentional.
Since its release on January 8th, 2021 “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo is the single that has swept the pop charts. Her debut single “Drivers License” has now earned the biggest weekly streaming debut for any song in the US Spotify chart history at a staggering 30 million streams and counting (according to chart data.org). This milestone also puts her at the top of the list for the largest first week on-demand audio streams for any song by a female artist in US history. This artist knows exactly who her fan base is but this single seems to transcend that age range. The teenage tale taps into your nostalgic years of high school when you were daydreaming about your crush, or ex, or even that first moment of freedom you had inside your first car. This autobiographical breakup song takes us back to the Taylor Swift era of breakup music. Taylor, who as a matter of fact has already given Rodrigo her stamp of approval. She was stoked.
Although this single may have given Rodrigo a wider reach, it is actually not the first time that the singer has found herself on the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Olivia Rodrigo is finally breaking away from the Disney world, where she is most famously known for her role as Nini Salazar-Roberts in Disney Plus’ mockumentary like show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Her character is cast as Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens’ original role) and makes her mark in the latest of the High School Musical universe. In the show the artists crafts a piano ballad titled “All I Want” which seemed to resonate so much with fans that it found itself on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 90 once the soundtrack was released in January 2020.
Rumor has it that this breakup song was inspired by Olivia’s co-star now turned ex-boyfriend Joshua Bassett. Rodrigo and Bassett play the couple in the Disney Plus remake and were known to have broken up sometime in 2020. Since then Bassett has been seen out in public with Disney star Sabrina Carpenter. Fans were quick to realize that the lyrics:
“And you’re probably with that blonde girl / Who always made me doubt / She’s everything I’m insecure about”
is really just Olivia spilling the teenage tea. The relevance of the drama between the co-stars and the timing of its release may have just created the perfect storm as has even left Spotify executives baffled as to why her song in particular has seen such dramatic success. It will be interesting to witness the development of her career outside of the Disney universe and the steps she takes to craft an album that could ultimately set her free.