Olivia Rodrigo's remarkable rise – in the face of two mysterious controversies – is a testament to her talent

In late 2020, if you asked someone on the street who she was, they'd likely have no clue who you're referring to.

Now, you can hardly leave the house – or put down your mobile phone – without hearing her dulcet tones.

Olivia Rodrigo is only 21 years old, but the last three years has seen her secure success many spend decades only dreaming about. And it all started with the clever leveraging of a real-life love triangle.

Watch the video above.

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It's a tale as old as time: boy meets girl, they fall in love, boy falls in love with someone else, leaves girl in the dust, sobbing as she picks up the pieces of her shattered heart.

In the (alleged) case of Disney Channel stars Joshua Bassett, Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter, however, the reported love triangle launched the careers of two of the world's biggest pop princesses.

Rodrigo and Carpenter's subsequent record-breaking albums more than proved that they were the ones who had actually left Bassett in the dust, and besides, there's actually a more prominent star they have in common that's raised more eyebrows in the years since.

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Yes, we're talking about Taylor Swift. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Inside the remarkable rise and rise of Olivia Rodrigo

Born in California to a school teacher and a family therapist, it was clear that Rodrigo – who identifies as Filipino American – was destined for stardom from a young age.

Although she's half-deaf in her left ear, Rodrigo started pursuing singing when she was in primary school, participating in the after-school musical theatre program.

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When she was five, her singing teacher Jennifer Dustman signed her up for various singing competitions, then, on Dustman's advice, she started taking acting lessons, and then at nine years old, taking piano lessons.

When she was seven, in 2010, Rodrigo starred in her first commercial – a clip for Old Navy. Six years later, at 13, Rodrigo had landed a lead role in Disney's series Bizaardvark and moved to Los Angeles.

In 2019, Rodrigo – who is now dating Louis Partridge – was cast opposite Bassett in a leading role in Disney's series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. The rest, as they say, is history.

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It was Swift who actually sparked Rodrigo's interest in pursuing songwriting, with her country music songs prompting Rodrigo to pick up guitar lessons at the age of 12.

Five years later, hot off the heels of her smash single Drivers License, a then-17-year-old Rodrigo woke up to a phone call where she "just about died".

"I was dead asleep and my friend called me on the phone and I was like, 'Oh my God, it's 6 am. Can I call you back in two hours?' And he's like, 'No. Absolutely not. Check your Instagram right now,'" Rodrigo, who had described herself as the "biggest Swiftie in the whole world", told Apple Music's Zane Lowe in January 2021.

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"And in the grogginess of my sleep, I checked my phone and she commented on my photo and I just about died … just about died," she said.

"Literally, I've looked up to her as long as I can remember, so it was so sweet of her to do that."

Swift had commented "I say that's my baby and I'm really proud" underneath a photo Rodrigo had shared showing Drivers License sitting at No. 3 on iTunes, right underneath two of Swift's Evermore bonus tracks.

"What is breathing," Rodrigo later joked on Instagram, alongside a screenshot of Swift's message.

Swift had previously shared Rodrigo's cover of her hit Cruel Summer to social media in April 2020, writing, "The talent. Love this!" on X (formerly Twitter).

"Actually, last night, like literally like 12 hours ago, I got a package from her with this like handwritten note," Rodrigo later told SiriusXM of Swift in March 2021.

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"She gave me this ring because she said she wore one just like it when she wrote Red and she wanted me to have one like it and I, and like all of this amazing stuff, she's like hand-wrapped these gifts," Rodrigo continued.

"I feel so lucky that I just like was born at the right time to be able to look up to somebody like her. I think she's incredible. All of her support and like genuine, like compassion and excitement for me is just been so, so surreal."

In May 2021, one week before SOUR came out but after the single Drivers License had been released, the two finally met in real life at the BRIT Awards, with Rodrigo revealing to Billboard: "I don't want to divulge too much because it's really sweet and personal, but she talks a lot about how, I think, you make your own luck in the world. And when you do kind things to others, good things come your way."

But less than two years later, when Swift embarked on her mammoth The Eras Tour and every celebrity and their dog was in attendance, Rodrigo was mysteriously absent.

And when Swift announced Carpenter – Rodrigo's former love rival – as one of her opening acts, it's no exaggeration to say that millions of eyebrows around the world raised simultaneously.

So what the hell happened?

No one else was in the room when Swift's team was deciding who, exactly, should accompany her on her blockbuster 21-month-long tour around the globe – and neither Swift nor Rodrigo themselves have ever publicly on it.

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What we will say is this: Rodrigo initially had been somewhat of a protégé of Swift's when her freshman album SOUR – the record that saw Rodrigo win the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album of the Year in 2022 – was first released.

Then, Rodrigo – who is currently in Australia on her Guts World Tour – was forced to give Swift and Jack Antonoff (as well as Paramore's Hayley Williams and Josh Farro, plus St. Vincent) writing credits on select songs due to copyright concerns, and Rodrigo and Swift's relationship notably began to, excuse the pun, sour.

What followed was Swift taking Carpenter under her wing, something many fans of Rodrigo had thought would happen to the Déjà Vu songstress instead.

The circumstances surrounding the songwriting credits are a bit murky, with Rodrigo only ever truly commenting on the fact that she had given Swift and Antonoff credits on 1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back.

"We interpolated New Year's Day, which is Taylor's song from Reputation. I came up with the 1 step forward concept and I sort of wrote a verse and a chorus, and when I got home – I was in the car on a road trip, and when I got home, I decided to sing it over the chords of New Year's Day," Rodrigo told Billboard in a story published one day before SOUR was released in May 2021.

"I think they're really beautiful chords. I was lucky enough to get that approved, and it's on the record now."

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Interpolation means a certain element from one song had been re-recorded into another song, which is different from sampling, which is when a snippet of the original recording is taken.

By July, Swift and some of her collaborators had quietly been given "non-collaborative credits" on Déjà Vu, which has a bridge some argue is similar to that of Swift's Cruel Summer.

By August, Rodrigo had also given further writing credits to other artists, which means they get a cut of the profits from the songs.

In December 2021, Rodrigo hinted at the situation in a Time magazine profile, which saw her named Entertainer of the Year.

"It was really frustrating to see people discredit and deny my creativity," Rodrigo said at the time.

"Young women are constantly compared to each other. I'm the 'new this' or 'this woman meets that woman,' and that can be reductive. I'm just Olivia. I'm doing my own thing. It's meaningful when people recognise that."

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"I was a little caught off guard," Rodrigo later told Rolling Stone in September 2023 of the songwriting situation.

"At the time it was very confusing, and I was green and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Is that the phrase?

"It's not something that I was super involved in. It was more team-on-team. So, I wouldn't be the best person to ask."

Ironically, in April 2024, Swift released her song imgonnagetyouback as part of her album The Tortured Poets Department, and fans were very quick to point out the conceptual similarities to Rodrigo's September 2023 hit Get Him Back! off the Guts album.

Though Swift has never commented on the situation, she was seen giving a standing ovation to Rodrigo at the Grammys in January 2024, after Rodrigo performed her song Vampire – which many believe is about Swift.

Both women would go on to perform multiple sold-out shows in Australia in the months that followed – with Rodrigo scheduled to perform two more shows at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena this weekend, before hitting Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena for four shows from October 17.

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Title: Olivia Rodrigo's remarkable rise – in the face of two mysterious controversies – is a testament to her talent
Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/music/olivia-rodrigo-inside-the-rise-of-american-singer-songwriter-actress-explainer/f511e1fa-8ad7-4584-9b9e-70d07c0376bc
Published Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2024 06:10:00 GMT