Olivia Rodrigo - SOUR (2021)

The most talked-about teenager on the planet is sitting on a bed, 3,500 miles away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, looking impossibly chic in a rented house in London. The room is immaculate in the manner of high-end Airbnbs — pressed linens, botanical wallpaper, fluffy green pillows. Hair pulled back sharp, she’s wearing a velvety leopard-print bomber jacket atop a nondescript black crew neck long-sleeve and black pants, like a behind-the-scenes musical theater hand might. Fitting, considering that before Olivia Rodrigo became an overnight sensation for her monster-hit torch song “drivers license,” she was best known for her role as theater nerd Nini Salazar-Roberts in Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. Except, of course, this is real life and she is center stage.

“I’m so excited!” says the 18-year-old, leaning in towards the computer monitor the way you might IRL. She is excited to be in the U.K., excited to perform at the 2021 BRIT Awards, excited to meet her hero Taylor Swift, excited to release her first album, SOUR, out May 21, excited that her music career has brought her here, to this moment.

And why wouldn’t she be? Nobody is having a better year. In January, “drivers license” debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and eviscerated Spotify’s record for the most song streams in a week. Her first ever performance of the song was on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Her follow-up single, the psychedelic pop “deja vu,” scored 20.3 million streams in the U.S. in the first week of release. Then there was the Saturday Night Live sketch where the show’s male talent (Kenan Thompson, Pete Davidson, Bowen Yang, and crew) were moved to tears by “drivers license.” Less than three months later, and she’s the show’s musical guest, performing her third song as a soloist, the dance-y pop-punk barn-burner “good 4 u.”

You could call it quick, but you can’t say it’s without merit. Rodrigo’s talent as a songwriter is so apparent, it has nearly eclipsed the teen star drama that accompanied her debut. (In short: Rodrigo’s costar and rumored ex, Joshua Bassett, was spotted with fellow teen star Sabrina Carpenter, who sounds a lot like the older blonde of “drivers license”; Bassett and Carpenter released what fans believed were rebuttal songs.) Although Rodrigo sings about her insecurities, during our Zoom interview she talks about her craft and production with the self-assurance of someone who knows we’re going to be talking about it for years to come. “There are therapeutic benefits to songwriting,” she tells me. “Whenever I’m feeling upset, I go to the piano. I go to the piano before I call a friend.” But she still marvels at the power that music — her music! — holds: “You can literally create a whole song in your bedroom, and it can affect millions of people.”

On the eve of SOUR’s release, Rodrigo tells NYLON the stories behind the new songs, what she thinks about the gossip, and how she’s breaking the Disney teen star mold.

TRACKLIST

1. Olivia Rodrigo - brutal
2. Olivia Rodrigo - traitor
3. Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license
4. Olivia Rodrigo - 1 step forward, 3 steps back
5. Olivia Rodrigo - deja vu
6. Olivia Rodrigo - good 4 u
7. Olivia Rodrigo - enough for you
8. Olivia Rodrigo - happier
9. Olivia Rodrigo - jealousy, jealousy
10. Olivia Rodrigo - favorite crime
11. Olivia Rodrigo - hope ur ok