Does Olivia Rodrigo Actually Have a Driver’s License?
Disney+’s show High School Musical: The Musical The Series takes the beloved world of High School Musical and is a new take on the story with a fresh crop cast of young actors. Olivia Rodrigo is one of these actors, but her latest claim to fame isn’t for the Disney+ show.
Olivia Rodrigo’s music debut is a viral hit
Rodrigo released her debut single “Drivers License” on January 8, 2021. She had once contributed an original song called “All I Want” to the HSMTMTS soundtrack, but this marked her official solo debut in the music world.
“Drivers License” broke records in its first week of release. On January 12, the song racked up over 17 million streams on Spotify from around the world, setting a new record for the most Spotify streams in a single day on a song.
Billboard confirmed that the song was a runaway hit, and could be the first big splash on the charts of 2021.
‘Drivers License’ is rumored to be about her ‘High School Musical: The Musical The Series’ co-star
“Drivers License” was a smash hit immediately after its release, but as the song began to go viral, rumors began to swirl about who the emotional ballad is about. Many believe that Rodrigo wrote the song about her HSMTMTS co-star Joshua Bassett. Rodrigo hasn’t confirmed or denied this, but she promised fans that the heartbreak they hear in the song is genuine.
“The pain is definitely real in that song,” she said. “I definitely think I try to approach recording all of my music from a place of emotion.”
One week after the release of “Drivers License,” Bassett released his own song titled “Lie Lie Lie,” ramping up the rumors of a relationship that went sour between them.
Bassett hinted at the origin of his single on his Instagram story. “I wrote ‘Lie, Lie, Lie’ after I found out a friend had been lying about me behind my back for a long time,” he said. “It always sucks to hear that someone you thought you could trust would throw you under the bus when it benefits them.”
But does Olivia Rodrigo even have a driver’s license?
For someone who looks so young and plays a high schooler on TV, one might assume that Rodrigo singing about a driver’s license makes no sense considering she’s too young. But the 17-year-old actor has been able to drive since summer 2020, sharing her accomplishment on Instagram.
“Happy girl in the DMV parking lot because I (finally) got my drivers license!!!!!” she said in the caption.
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe on January 14, Rodrigo told the story of how she wrote the track — and revealed that her own driver’s license played a key role in its creation.
“I was driving around my neighborhood, actually listening to really sad songs and crying in the car, and I got home and I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll write a song about this, crying in the car,’” she said. “So, I just sat down at my piano and plucked out some chords that I liked and it kind of happened that way. But it was really, really natural and organic. Very much me writing in the depth of my emotion.”
